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*     NOV  22 1907      * 


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Division  a5^*' 
Section    .  L  43 

R07 


SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 


IN  THE 


CHRISTIAN   CHURCH 


HISTORY 


OF 


Sacerdotal  Celibacy 


IN    THE 


CHRISTIAN   CHURCH 


BY 
HENRY  CHARLES  LEA,  LL.D.,  S.T.D. 

THIRD  EDITION,  REVISED 


Ou  jap  dsou  i(TTi  XIV eiu  Itcc  ra  Tcapa  (poacv 

Athenagor^  pro  Christianis  Legatio 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 


VOL.  II 


mew  l^otk 
THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1907 


CONTENTS 


XXIV.  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY 

A.D.  PAGE 

Demoralisation  of  the  sacerdotal  body        ...  1 

1418                 Futile  efforts  of  the  Council  of  Constance  .         .         ,         3 
1422  Efforts  of  Martin  V. 6 

Undiminished  corruption  and  symptoms  of  revolt      .  7 

1423 — 1430     The  Council  of  Basle  attempts  a  reform      .         .         ,10 

Impotence  of  the  Basilian  canons — Venality  of  the 

papal  court     .         .         .  .         .  .         .         .13 

1484 — 1500     Condition  of  the  Church  in  Italy,  France,  England, 

Spain,  Germany,  and  Hungary        .         .  .         .15 

I486  Relaxation  of  monastic  discipline       ....       22 

1476  John  of  Nicklaushausen     ......       24 

Sacerdotal  marriage  advocated  as  a  remedy        .         .       27 
1479  John  of  Oberwesel    .......       28 

1485  Heresy  of  Jean  Laillier     ......       29 


XXV.  THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY 


Irreverential  spirit  of  the  sixteenth  century 
1510  Complaints  of  the  Germans  against  the  Church 

Immobility  of  the  Church  .... 

Popular  movement — Luther  and  Erasmus 
1518  Official  opposition  to  the  abuses  of  the  Church . 

1517 — 1520     Luther  neglects  the  question  of  celibacy — his  gradual 
progress         ....... 

1521  First  examples  of  sacerdotal  marriage 
Approved  by  Carlostadt — Disapproved  by  Luther 

1522  Zwingli  demands  sacerdotal  marriage — Luther  adopt 

it 

1523  Efforts  of  the  Church  to  repress  the  movement  . 
Popular  approbation — Protection  in  high  quarters 


3] 
32 
33 
35 

37 

39 
42 
43 

45 

47 
49 


vi  CONTENTS 

A.D. 

1523 — 1524     Emancipation  of  nuns  and  monks 

1525  Marriage  of  Luther    ...... 

Causes  of  popular  acquiescence  in  the  change    . 

Extreme  immorality  of  the  clergy — Papal  Dispensa 
tions      .'....., 

Admitted  by  the  Catholics  to  justify  heresy 
1522 — 1526     Erasmus  advocates  clerical  marriage 

Assistance  from  ambition  of  temporal  princes    . 
1530  Efforts  at  reunion — Confession  of  Augsburg 

Failure  of  reconciliation — League  of  Schmalkalden 

The  Anabaptists        ...*.. 
1532 — 1540     Partial  toleration — Difficulties  concerning  the  Abbey 
lands     ........ 

1541  Attempt  at  reconciliation  .... 

1548  The  Interim — Sacerdotal  marriage  tolerated 

1552  The  Reformation  established  by  the  Transaction  of 

Passau  ........ 


XXVL  THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH 

Conservative  tendencies  of  England  . 
1500—1523  John  Colet  and  Sir  Thomas  More  . 
1524  Difficulties  of  the  situation — Wolsey  undertakes  th 

destruction  of  monachism       .... 
1528  General  suppression  of  the  smaller  houses 

1532  Henry  VIII. 's  quarrel  with  Rome 

1535  General  visitation  of  monasteries,  and  suppression  of 

most  of  them  ...... 

Popular  opinions — The  Beggars'  Petition  . 

1536  Popular  discontent — The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace 
1537 — 1546     Final  suppression  of  the  religious  houses  and  founda 

tions       .         .         .         .         .         .       -  . 

Fate  of  their  inmates         .... 

1535 — 1541     Irish  monastic  establishments  destroyed 
Henry  still  insists  on  celibacy  . 
Efforts  to  procure  its  relaxation 

1537  Uncertainty  of  the  subject  in  the  public  mind 

1539  Henry's  firmness — Act  of  the  Six  Articles 
Persecution  of  the  married  clergy 

1540  Modification  of  the  Six  Articles 


95 
101 
102 
107 
108 
109 
111 
112 
115 


CONTENTS  vii 

A.D.  PAGE 

1547  Accession  of  Edward  VI. — Repeal  of  the  Six  Articles      11 6 

1548 — 1549     Full  liberty  of  marriage  accorded  to  the  clergy  .     118 

Armed  opposition  of  the  people  .         .         .         .119 

1552  Adoption  of  the  Forty-two  Articles  ....  121 
Difficulty  of  removing  popular  convictions  .  .122 

1553  Accession  of  Queen    Mary — Legislation   of  Edward 

repealed         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  .123 

1554  The  married  clergy  separated  and  deprived  .  .124 
Suffering  of  the  clergy  in  consequence  .  .  .128 
England    reconciled    to     Rome — Church    lands  not 

recalled 129 

1555  Cardinal  Pole's  Legatine  Constitutions       .         .         .132 

1557  More  stringent  legislation  required — Revival  of  the 

old  troubles  .         .  .         .  .         .         .         .133 

1558  Accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth   .         .  .         .         .135 

1559  Delay  in  authorising  marriage — Uncertainty  of  the 

married  clergy         .         .         .         .         .         .         .137 

Elizabeth  yields^  but  imposes  degrading  restrictions 
on  clerical  marriage        .         .  .  .         .         .139 

1563  The  Thirty-nine  Articles — Increased  emphasis  of  per- 

mission to  marry    .         .         .         .         .         .         .140 

Elizabeth  maintains  her  prejudices    .         .         .  .141 

Disrepute  of  sacerdotal  marriage — Evil  effects  on  the 
Anglican  clergy     .         .         .         .         .         .         ,145 


XXVII.  CALVINISM 

1512  Lefevre  d'Etaples  150 

1559—1640     The  Huguenot  Churches 151 

The  Reformation  in  Scotland    .         .  .  .         .154 

Corruption  of  the  Scottish  Church  in  the  sixteenth 
century  .  .  .         .         .         .         .         .155 

1542 — 1559     Efforts  at  internal  reform — their  fruitlessness    .         ,158 
Marriage  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course  by  the  Pro- 
testants        .         .         .  .  .         .         .         .160 

Temporal  motives  assisting  the  Reformation      .         .     I6I 
Poverty  of  the  Scottish  Church  establishment  .         .163 
Influence  of  celibacy  on  the  struggle  .         .  .     1 66 

1560  No  formal   recognition  of  clerical  marriage  thought 

necessary       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .      I69 

VOL.    II.  b 


viii  CONTENTS 


XXVIII.  THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT 

A.D.  PAGE 

171 


1524 — 1536     Efforts  at  internal  reform  .         .... 

Universal  demand  for  a  general  council — Convoked 

at  Mantua  in  15^6 

1542 — 1547     Assembles  at  Trent — it  labours  to  separate,  not  to 

reunite  the  churches  ..... 
1551 — 1552     Reassembles  at  Trent — is  again  broken  up 

1562  Again  assembles  for  the  last  time 
1536  Paul  III.  essays  an  internal  reform  without  result 
1548                  Charles  V.  tries  to  reform  the  German  Church  . 
1548 — 1551     Local  reformatory  synods — their  failure     . 
1560                  Clerical  marriages  demanded  as  a  last  resort 

Clerical  corruption  urged  as  the  reason 

1563  The  French  court  joins  in  the  demand 
1560  The  question  prejudged     ..... 
1562 — 1563     Negotiations  for  priestly  marriage  and  Communion 

in  both  Elements  ...... 

1 563  The  council  makes  celibacy  a  point  of  faith 

Attempts  a  reformation      ..... 

1563 — 1564     The  German  princes  continue  their  efforts 
Essays  of  Cassander  and  Wicelius 
Successful  opposition  of  Philip  II.      . 

1 566  Peremptory  action  of  Pius  V.    . 


XXIX.  THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH 


1566 — 1572     Pius  V.  endeavours  to  effect  a  reform 
1568 — 1570     Labours  of  St.  Charles  Borromeo  at  Milan 
1565 — 1597     Reforms  vainly  attempted  by  Italian  councils 
1569 — 1668     Condition  of  the  church  in  Central  Europe 
Provisions  for  the  children  of  priests 
Clerical  immorality  still  a  justification  of  heresy 
1560 — 1624     Condition  of  the  Church  in  France    . 
The  residence  of  women  conceded    . 
Celebration  of  Mass  by  Concubinarians 
The  Church  in  the  Spanish  Colonies  . 


179 

180 
181 
182 
183 
185 
187 
192 
193 
197 
198 

200 
203 
204 
206 
210 
216 
217 


Reception  of  the  Council  of  Trent  except  in  France     221 

223 
227 
229 
231 
232 
233 
235 
239 
240 
245 


CONTENTS  ix 
XXX.  SOLICITATION 

A.D.  PAGE 

Abuse  of  the   Confessional  prior  to  the   Reformation  251 

Heretic  attacks  call  for  more  vigorous  action    .          .  254 

1547 — 1791      Introduction  of  Confessionals    .....  255 
1559 — 156*1     Jurisdiction  conferred  on  the  Spanish  Inquisition — 

Its  activity 257 

Resistance  of  the  Regular  Orders      ....  260 

Difficulty  of  defining  the  Crime         ....  26l 

1622                  Bull  of  Gregory  XV,,  Universi  Dominici  Gregis           .  264 
Tardy   acceptance   by  Spain — Rejection    by  France 

and  Germany         .......  265 

Solicitation    becomes   merely  a   technical   offence — 

Indecency  in  the  Confessional        ....  267 

Duty  of  Penitents  to  denounce  Offenders           .         .  270 
Absolution  of  Partners  in  Guilt           .         .         .         .271 

Demand  for  name  of  Accomplice  in  Sin    .         .         .  276 

Passive  Solicitation— Flagellation       ....  277 
Results   of    the   papal    Decrees — France,  Germany, 

Italy,  Spain — Favour  shown  to  the  Accused  .         .  279 

Avenues  of  escape  open    ......  285 

Mildness  of  punishment     ......  287 

Spontaneous  Self- Accusation      .         .         .         .         .291 

Preponderance  of  culprits  in  the  Religious  Orders     .  294 
Divorceof  Morals  and  Religion — Absolution  facilitated  295 


XXXI.  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

Sacerdotal    marriage    obsolete — Grandier,   Du    Pin, 

Bossuet  . 297 

1758 — 1800     The  eighteenth  century — Controversy  reopened         .     298 
1783  Joseph   II,   proposes  to  permit  sacerdotal  marriage     300 

1760 — 1787     Clerical  immorality  undiminished       .         .         .         .301 

1789  The  French  Revolution 306 

1789 — 1790     Confiscation    of     church    property — Suppression    of 

monachism     .         .  .         .         .         .         .         .309 

1791  Celibacy  deprived   of  legal  protection — Marriage  of 

priests  .........     310 

1793  Marriage  becomes  a  test  of  good  citizenship      .         .311 

Persecution  of  the  unmarried  clergy  .         .         .314 


CONTENTS 


A.D. 

1795—1797 

1801 

1801—1807 


Resistance  of  the  great  body  of  the  clergy 
Married  clergy  repudiated  by  their  bishops 
Celibacy  restored  by  the  Concordat  . 
Clerical     marriage    continues  —  Napoleon 
against  it       .....         . 


decides 


PAGE 

315 
316 
818 

320 


XXXII.  THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY 

1815 — 1883     Vacillating  policy  in  France  as  to  clerical  marriage  .  322 

1821 — 1866     Various  movements  in  favour  of  clerical  marriage         .  323 

Immobility  of  the  Church         .....  326 

1878                  The  Old  Catholics  adopt  clerical  marriage          .         .  329 

Civil  marriage  laws  opposed  by  the  Church        .         .  330 

1820 — 1867     Suppression  of  monastic  orders          ....  335 

Influence  of  celibacy  on  clerical  morality            .          .  339 

Solicitation  in  modern  times      .....  342 

Influence  of  celibacy  on  the  social  organisation           .  358 


Index 


365 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY 

Neither  the  assaults  of  heretics  nor  the  constant  efforts 
at  partial  reform  attempted  by  individual  prelates  had  thus 
far  proved  of  any  avail.  As  time  wore  on,  the  Church 
sank  deeper  into  the  mire  of  corruption,  and  its  struggles 
to  extricate  itself  grew  feebler  and  more  hopeless.  We 
have  seen  that,  early  in  the  fifteenth  century,  Gerson 
advised  an  organised  system  of  concubinage  as  preferable 
to  the  indiscriminate  licentiousness  which  was  everywhere 
prevalent.  Even  more  suggestive  are  the  declarations  of 
Nicholas  de  Clamenges,  Rector  of  the  University  of  Paris 
and  Secretary  of  the  anti-pope  Benedict  XIII.  He  does 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  vices  of  the  clergy  were  so 
universal  that  those  who  adhered  to  the  rule  of  chastity 
were  the  objects  of  the  most  degrading  and  disgusting 
suspicions,  so  little  faith  was  there  in  the  possible  purity 
of  any  ecclesiastic.  He  also  records  the  extension  of  a 
custom  to  which  I  have  already  alluded  when  he  states 
that  in  a  majority  of  parishes  the  people  insisted  on  their 
pastors  keeping  concubines,  and  that  even  this  was  a  pre- 
caution insufficient  for  the  peace  and  honour  of  their 
families.^  Elsewhere  he  describes  the  mass  of  the  clergy 
as  wholly  abandoned  to  worldly  ambition  and  vices,  op- 
pressing and    despoiling  those   subjected  to  them,   and 

1  Taceo  de  fornicationibus  et  adulteriis,  a  quibus  qui  alieni  sunt  probro  caeteris 
ac  ludibrio  esse  solent,  spadonesque  aut  sodomitae  appellantur  ;  denique  laici  usque 
adeo  persuasum  habent  nullos  coelibes  esse,  ut  in  plerisque  parochiis  non  aliter  velint 
presbyterum  tolerare  nisi  concubinam  habeat,quo  vel  sic  suis  sit  consultum  uxoribus, 
quae  nee  sic  quidem  usque-quaque  sunt  extra  periculum. — Nic.  de  Clamengis  de 
Praesul.  Simoniac  (0pp.  Lug.  Bat.  1G13,  p.  165). 

VOL.  II.  A 


2  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

spending  their  ill-gotten  gains  in  the  vilest  excesses,  while 
they  ridiculed  unsparingly  such  few  pious  souls  as  endea- 
voured to  live  according  to  the  light  of  the  gospel.  ^    Another 
tract  which  passes  under  his  name  declares  that  in  most 
of  the  dioceses  the  parish  priests  openly  kept  concubines, 
which  they  were  permitted  to  do  on  payment  of  a  tax  to 
their  bishops.     Nunneries  were  brothels,  and  to  take  the 
veil  was  simply  another  mode  of  becoming  a  public  piJos- 
titute.^     Cardinal  Peter  dAilly  declares  that  he  does  not 
dare  to  describe  the  immorality  of  the  nunneries.^     In  a 
similar  indignant  mood  Gerson  stigmatises  the  nunneries 
of  his  time  as  houses  of  prostitution,  the  monasteries  as 
centres  of  trade  and  amusement,  the  cathedral  churches  as 
dens  of  ravishers  and  robbers,  and  the  priesthood  at  large 
as  habitual  concubinarians.*     That  he  felt  these  evils  to  be 
inseparable  from  the  condition  of  the  Church  is  evident 
when,  in  an  argument  to  prove  the  necessity  of  celibacy, 
he  is  driven  to  the  assertion  that  it  is  better  to  tolerate 
incontinent  priests  than  to  have  no  priests  at  all.^     He 
argues  that  the  clergy  are  worthy  of  as  many  sentences  of 
damnation  as  they  seduce  souls  to  perdition  by  their  cor- 
rupt example,  and  he  asks,  when  he  who  destroys  himself 
by  his  own  sins  is  to  be  condemned,  whether  he  who  draws 
with  him  numerous  others  is  not  still  more  worthy  of  per- 
dition.^     Theodoric   a   Niem   represents   the   bishops   of 
Scandinavia  as  carrying  with  them  their  concubines   on 
their  pastoral  visitations,  and  as  inflicting  penalties  on  such 
of  the  parish  priests  as  they  found  living  without  similar 
companions,  while  these  women  habitually  took  precedence 

1  Nic.  de  Clamengiis  Disput.  super  Mater.  Concil.  General. 

2  Nic.  de  Clamengiis  de  Ruina  Ecclesise  cap.  xxii.,  xxxvi.— Conf.  Theobaldi  Con- 
quest. (Von  der  Hardt  T.  T.  P.  vi.  XTX.  p.  909.) 

3  P.  de  Alliaco  Canunes  Eeformat.  cap.  iv.  (Von  der  Hardt  T.  I.  P.  vi.  p.  425.) 

4  Gersoni  Declarat  defect,  viror.  ecclesiast.  Ixv.,  Ixvi. 

B  Dicimus  quod  de  duobus  malis  minus  est  incontinentes  tolerare  sacerdotes  quam 
nullos  habere. — Gersoni  Dial,  Sophias  et  Naturae  Act.  iv. 
6  Ejiisd.  Sermo  de  Vita  Clericorum. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  3 

in  church  of  the  wives  of  the  neighbouring  gentry — and  he 
adds  that  the  clergy  of  the  south  of  Europe  were  no  better.^ 
Theodoric  Vrie,  a  learned  and  pious  Churchman  of  Saxony, 
is  equally  unsparing  in  his  denunciations  of  the  Teutonic 
clergy^ — and,  indeed,  the  testimony  of  the  writers  of  the 
period  is  so  unanimous  that  their  descriptions  of  clerical 
vices  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  mere  rhetorical  declamation 
of  disappointed  reformers. 

It  was  evident  that  the  efforts  of  local  synods  were 
fruitless  to  eradicate  evils  so  general  and  so  deeply  rooted, 
while  the  necessity  for  some  reform  became  every  day 
more  apparent.  Though  LoUardry  had  been  crushed  in 
England  under  the  stern  hand  of  Henry  V.,  yet  it  was 
reappearing  in  Bohemia  in  a  form  even  more  threatening. 
The  Council  of  Pisa  had  not  succeeded  in  healing  the  Great 
Schism,  and  there  arose  a  general  demand  for  an  (Ecumenic 
Council  in  which  the  Church  Universal  should  assemble  for 
the  purpose  of  purifying  itself,  of  eradicating  heresy,  and 
of  settling  definitely  the  pretensions  of  the  three  claimants 
to  the  papacy.  John  XXIII.  yielded  to  the  pressure,  and 
the  call  for  the  Council  of  Constance  went  forth  in  his  name 
and  in  that  of  the  Emperor  Sigismund. 

So  powerful  a  body  had  never  before  been  gathered 
together  in  Europe.  It  claimed  to  be  the  supreme  repre- 
sentative of  the  Church,  and  though  it  acknowledged 
John  XXIII.  as  the  lawful  successor  of  St.  Peter,  it  had 
no  scruples  in  arraigning,  trying,  condemning,  and  deposing 
him — an  awful  expression  of  its  supremacy,  without 
precedent  in  the  past  and  without  imitation  in  succeeding 
ages.  As  regards  heresy,  it  did  the  best  it  could,  according 
to  the  fights  of  its  age,  by  burning  John  Huss  and  Jerome 
of  Prague.  Its  functions  as  a  reformer,  however,  required 
for  their  exercise  more  nerve  than  even  the  condemnation 

1  Theod.  a  Niem  Nemoris  Unionis  Tract.  V.  cap.  xxxv. 

2  Theod.  Vrie  Hist.  Concil.  Constant.  Lib,  ii.,  in.  (Von.  der  Hardt  T.  I.). 


4  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

of  a  pope.     Many  members  were  thoroughly  penetrated 
with  the  conviction  that  reform  was  of  instant  necessity, 
and  such  men  as  Gerson,  Peter  d'Ailly  of  Cambrai,  and 
Nicholas  de  Clamenges  were  prepared  to  shrink  from  none 
of  the  means  requisite  for  so  hallowed  an  end.     In  the 
existing   corruption,  however,  of  the   body   from  which 
representatives  were  drawn,  such  men  could  scarcely  form 
a   controlling   majority.     After  the  council  had  been  in 
session  for  nearly  two  years,  the  reformers  began  to  despair 
of  effecting  anything,  and  Clamenges  did  not  hesitate  to 
assert  that  nothing  was  to  be  expected  from  men  who 
would  regard  reform  as  the  greatest  calamity  that  could 
befall  themselves  ;^  while  another  of  the  members  of  the 
council  declared  that  every  one  wanted  such  a  reform  as 
should   allow  him  to  retain  his  own  particular  form  of 
iniquity.^     These  estimates,  indeed,  of  the  character  of  the 
majority  of  the  good  fathers  of  Constance  are  borne  out  by 
the  contemporary  accounts  of  the  multitudes  who  flocked 
to  it  to  ply  their  trades  among  the  assembled  dignitaries  of 
the  Church,  showing  that  they  were  by  no  means  all  devoted 
to  mortifying  the  flesh.  ^ 

The  feelings  of  those  who  sincerely  desired  reform,  as 
they  saw  the  prospect  rapidly  fading  before  their  eyes, 
may  be  estimated  by  a  sermon  of  a  sturdy  Gascon  abbot, 
Bernhardus  Baptisatus,  preached  before  the  council  in 
August  1517,  about  three  months  before  the  conservatives 
succeeded  in  carrying  their  point  by  electing  Martin  V. 
He  denounces  the  members  of  the  council  as  Pharisees, 
falsely  pretending  to  be  devout  in  order  to  elude  the 
punishment  due  to  their  crimes.     The  masses  and  pro- 

1  Nic.  de  Clamengiis,  Disput.  sup.  Mat.  Cone.  General.  This  work  was  written 
in  1416,  after  the  council  had  been  in  session  for  nearly  two  years. 

2  Theobaldi  Conquestio  (Von  der  Hardt  T.  I.  P.  xix.  p.  904). 

3  Item,  fistulatores,  tubicenae,  joculatores,  516  ;  item,  meretrices,  virgines  pub- 
licae,  718. — Laur.  Byzynii  Diar.  Bell.  Hussit.  A  Catholic  contemporary,  however, 
reduces  the  number  of  courtesans  to  450  and  that  of  jugglers  and  minstrels  to  320 
(Joann.  Fistenportii  Chron.  ann.  1415. — Hahn.  Collect.  Monument.  I.  401). 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  5 

cessions,  which  were  the  main  business  of  the  assemblage, 
he  declares  to  be  valueless  in  the  eyes  of  God,  for  most 
of  those  who  so  busily  took  part  in  them  were  involved 
solely  in  worldly  cares,  laughing,  cheating,  sleeping,  or  de- 
mioralising  the  rest  with  their  ungodly  conversation.  The 
Holy  Spirit  did  not  hold  the  acts  of  the  council  acceptable, 
nor  dwell  with  its  unrighteous  members.^  Such  a  convo- 
cation could  have  but  one  result. 

It  is  easy  therefore  to  understand  the  influences  that 
were  brought  to  bear  to  defeat  the  expectations  of  the 
reformers  :  how  the  subject  could  be  postponed  until  after 
the  questions  connected  with  the  papacy  and  with  heresy 
were  disposed  of;  and  how,  after  the  election  of  Martin  V., 
those  who  shrank  from  all  reform  could  assume  that  it 
might  safely  be  entrusted  to  the  hands  of  a  pontiff  so  able, 
so  energetic,  and  so  virtuous.  In  all  this  they  were 
successful.  The  council  closed  its  weary  sessions, 
22  April,  1418,  and  during  its  three  years  and  a  half 
of  labour  it  had  only  found  leisure  to  regulate  the  dress 
of  ecclesiastics,  the  unclerical  cut  of  whose  sleeves  was 
especially  distasteful  to  the  representative  body  of  Chris- 
tendom.^ 

Still,  the  reformers  had  made  a  stubborn  fight,  and  had 
procured  the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  consider  all 
reformatory  propositions  and  prepare  a  general  scheme  for 
the  adoption  of  the  council.  This  body  laboured  as  dili- 
gently as  though  its  deliberations  were  to  be  crowned  with 
practical  results,  and  various  projects  of  reform  proposed 
by  it  have  been  preserved.  In  one  of  these  the  severest 
measures  of  repression  were  suggested  to  put  an  end  to  the 
scandal  of  concubinage  which  was  openly  practised  in  the 
majority  of  dioceses.  Under  this  scheme,  while  all  the 
canonical  punishments  heretofore  decreed  were  maintained 

1  Bernhardi  Baptisati  Sermo  (Von  der  Hardt  T.  I.  P.  xviii.  pp.  884-5). 

2  Concil.  Constant.  Sess.  XLIII.  can.  de  Vita  et  Honestate  Clericorum. 


6  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

in  full  vigour,  deprivation  was  pronounced  against  all  holders 
of  ecclesiastical  preferment,  from  bishops  down,  who 
should  not  within  one  month  eject  their  guilty  partners  ; 
their  positions  were  declared  vacant  ipso  jure,  and  their 
successors  were  to  be  immediately  appointed.  Those  who 
did  not  hold  benefices  were  similarly  to  be  declared  in- 
eligible to  preferment.  It  appears  that  scandals  had  arisen 
in  many  places  from  the  Hildebrandine  and  Wickliffite 
heresy,  whereby  parishioners  declined  the  ministrations  of 
those  who  were  living  in  open  and  notorious  sin ;  and  to 
avoid  these,  while  the  commission  declined  to  pass  an 
opinion  on  the  propriety  of  such  action,  it  advised  that  such 
private  judgment  should  not  be  exercised.^  In  another 
elaborate  system  of  reform,  which  bears  the  marks  of 
mature  deliberation,  the  attempt  was  made  to  eradicate 
the  long-standing  abuse  of  admitting  to  preferment  the 
illegitimate  children  of  ecclesiastics,  and  it  was  declared 
that  papal  dispensations  should  no  longer  be  recognised 
except  in  cases  of  peculiar  fitness  or  high  rank.^  The  same 
code  of  discipline  struck  a  significant  blow  at  the  inviola- 
bility of  the  monastic  profession  when  it  endeavoured  to 
check  the  prevailing  and  deplorable  licentiousness  of  the 
nunneries  by  decreeing  that  no  woman  should  be  admitted 
to  the  vows  beneath  the  age  of  twenty,  and  that  all  vows 
taken  at  a  younger  age  should  be  null  and  void.^  These 
projects  are  interesting  merely  as  indicating  the  direction 
in  which  the  reforming  portion  of  the  Church  desired  to 
move,  and  as  showing  that  even  they  did  not  propose  to 
remove  the  celibacy  which  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  evils 
they  so  sincerely  deplored. 

Martin  V.  had  assumed  the  responsibility  of  reforming 
the    Church,   and  he  did,  in  fact,  attempt  it  after  some 

1  De  Ecclesije  Keformat.   Protocoll.    cap,    xxxiii.   (Von  der  HardI,  T.  I.   P.  x. 
pp.  635-6. ) 

2  Reformatorii  Constant.  Decretal.  Lib.  i.  Tit.  v.  (Ibid.  p.  679). 

3  Ibid.  Lib.  III.  Tit.  x.  cap.  20  (p.  722. ) 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  7 

fashion,   though   he    apparently   took   to    heart    Dante's 
axiom — 

Lunga  promessa,  con  I'attender  corto 
Ti  fara  trionfar  neV  alto  seggio. 

In  1422  Cardinal  Branda  of  Piacenza,  his  legate,  when 
sent  to  Germany  to  preach  a  crusade  against  the  Hussites, 
was  honoured  with  the  title  of  Reformer  General,  and  full 
powers  were  given  to  him  to  effect  this  part  of  his  mission. 
The  letters-patent  of  the  Pope  bear  ample  testimony  to  the 
depravity  of  the  Teutonic  Church,^  while  the  constitution 
which  Branda  promulgated  declares  that  in  a  portion  of  the 
priesthood  there  was  scarcely  left  a  trace  of  decency  or 
morality.  According  to  this  document,  concubinage, 
simony,  neglect  of  sacred  functions,  gambling,  drinking, 
fighting,  buffoonery,  and  kindred  pursuits,  were  the  preva- 
lent vices  of  the  ministers  of  Christ ;  but  the  punishments 
which  he  enacted  for  their  suppression — repetitions  of  those 
which  we  have  seen  proclaimed  so  many  times  before — 
were  powerless  to  overcome  the  evils,  which  had  become 
part  and  parcel  of  the  Church  itself.^  This  condition  of 
affairs  was  not  the  result  of  any  abandonment  of  the 
attempt  to  enforce  the  canons.  Local  synods  were  meeting 
every  year,  and  scarcely  one  of  them  failed  to  call  attention 
to  the  subject,  devising  fresh  penalties  to  effect  the  im- 
possible. The  result  is  shown  in  the  lament  of  the  Council 
of  Cologne  in  1423.^ 

1  For  instance,  as  regards  the  religious  houses — "In  nonnallis  quoque  monas- 
teriis  .  .  .  norma  disciplinae  respuitur,  cultus  divinus  negligitur,  personse  quoque 
hujusmodi,  vitse  ac  morum  honestate  prostrata,  lubricitati,  incontinentise,  et  aliis 
variis  carnalis  concupiscentise  voluptatibus  et  viciis  non  sine  gravi  diviuae  majestatis 
offensa  tabescentes,  vitam  ducunt  dissolutam." — Martin  V.  ad  Brandam  §  iii.  (Lude- 
wig  Reliq.  Msctorum  XI.  409.) 

2  Usque  adeo  nonnullorum  clericorum  corruptela  excrevit,  ut  morum  atque 
honestatis  vestigia  apud  eos  paaca  admodum  remanserint. — Constit.  Brandse  §  1  (Op. 
cit.  XI.  385.) 

3  "  Quia  tamen,  succrescente  malitia  temporis  moderni,  labes  hujusmodi  criminis 
in  ecclesia  Dei  in  tantum  inolevit,  quod  scandala  phirima  in  populo  sunt  exorta,  et 
verisimiliter  exoriri  poterunt  in  futurum,  et  ex  fide  dignorum  relatione  percepimus 
quod  quidam  ecclesiarum  praelati  et  alii,  etiam  capitula  .  .  .  tales  in  suis  iniquita- 


8  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

What  was  the  condition  of  clerical  morals  in  Italy  soon 
after  this  may  be  learned  from  a  single  instance.  When 
Ambrose  was  made  General  of  the  austere  order  of 
Camaldoli  he  set  vigorously  to  work  to  reform  the  laxity 
which  had  almost  ruined  it.  One  of  his  abbots  was  noted 
for  abounding  licentiousness ;  not  content  with  ordinary 
amours,  he  was  wont  to  visit  the  nunneries  in  his  district 
to  indulge  in  promiscuous  intercourse  with  the  virgins 
dedicated  to  God.  Yet  Ambrose  in  taking  him  to  task 
did  not  venture  to  punish  him  for  his  misdeeds,  but 
promised  him  full  pardon  for  the  past  and  to  take  him 
into  favour,  if  he  would  only  abstain  for  the  future — a 
task  which  ought  to  be  easy,  as  he  was  now  old,  and 
should  be  content  with  having  long  lived  evilly,  and  be 
ready  to  dedicate  his  few  remaining  years  to  the  service 
of  God.^  When  a  reformer,  who  enjoyed  the  special 
friendship  and  protection  of  Eugenius  IV.,  was  forced 
to  be  so  moderate  with  such  a  criminal,  it  is  easy  to 
imagine  what  was  the  tone  of  morality  in  the  Church  at 
large. 

While  the  Armagnacs  and  Burgundians  were  rivalling 
the  English  in  carrying  desolation  into  every  corner  of 
France,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  the  peaceful  virtues 
could  flourish,  or  sempiternal  corruption  be  reformed. 
Accordingly,  it  need  not  surprise  us  to  see  Hardouin, 
Bishop  of  Angers,  despondingly  admit,  in  1428,  that 
licentiousness  had  become  so  habitual  among  his  clergy 
that  it  was  no  longer  reputed  to  be  a  sin ;  that  concubinage 
was  public  and  undisguised,  and  that  the  patrimony  of 

tibus  sustinuerunt  et  sustinent."  So  far,  however,  were  the  decrees  of  the  council 
from  being  effective,  that  the  Archbishop  was  obliged  to  modify  them  and  to  declare 
that  they  should  only  be  enforced  against  those  ecclesiastics  who  were  notoriously 
guilty,  and  who  kept  their  concubines  publicly. — Concil.  Coloniens.  ann.  1423  can.  i. 
viii.  (Hartzheim  V.  217,  220). 

1  Ambrosii  Camaldulensis  Lib.  v.  Epist.  xii,  (Martene  Ampliss.  Collect.  III. 
119-21).  This  was  not  the  only  case  of  abbots  whose  scandalous  lives  were  treated 
with  equal  forbearance.     See  Epistt.  xiii.,  xiv. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  9 

Christ  was  wasted  in  supporting  the  guilty  partners  of  the 
priesthood.  That  gambhng,  swearing,  drunkenness,  and 
all  manner  of  unclerical  conduct  should  accompany  these 
disorders,  is  too  probable  to  require  the  concurrent  testi- 
mony which  the  worthy  bishop  affords  us.^  Alain  Chartier, 
Archdeacon  of  Paris  and  Secretary  to  Charles  VI.  and 
Charles  VII.,  confirms  this  in  a  more  general  way,  when 
he  attributes  to  enforced  celibacy  and  the  temporal  endow- 
ments of  the  Church  the  vices  and  crimes  which  rendered 
the  clergy  so  odious  and  contemptible  to  the  laity  that  he 
looks  forward  to  the  speedy  advent  of  Antichrist  to  wipe 
out  the  whole  system  in  universal  ruin.^  Apparently  its 
corruption  was  too  deep-seated  to  hope  for  any  milder 
means  of  reformation.  To  this  we  may  at  least  partially 
attribute  the  utter  loss  of  respect  for  sacred  things  which 
rendered  the  churches  and  their  pastors  a  special  mark  for 
pillage  and  persecution  during  the  dreary  civil  wars  of  the 
period.^ 

In  England,  which  had  enjoyed  comparative  immunity 
from  civil  strife,  matters  were  quite  as  bad.  At  the 
request  of  Henry  V.,  in  1414,  the  University  of  Oxford 
prepared  a  series  of  articles  for  the  reformation  of  the 
Church,  whose  shortcomings  were  vehemently  attacked  by 
the  Lollards.  It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  a  more  humiliating 
confession  than  is  contained  in  the  38th  article,  directed 
against  priestly  immorality.  The  carnal  and  undisguised 
profligacy  of  ecclesiastics  is  declared  to  be  a  scandal  to  the 
Church,  and  its  impurity  to  be  a  dangerous  temptation  to 
others.  It  is  therefore  recommended  that  all  public  forni- 
cators be  suspended  for  a  limited  time  from  the  ministry  of 
the  altar,  and  that  some  corporal  chastisement  be  inflicted 
on  them,  in  place  of  the  trifling  pecuniary  mulct,  which, 

1  Harduini  Andegav.  Epist.  Statut.  Praef.  (Martene  Thesaur.  IV.  523-4.) 

2  Alan.  Charter.  Lib.  de  Exilio  (Johan.  Marise  Lib.  de  Schismat.  et  Concil.). 

3  Nic.  de  Clamengiis  de  Lapsu  et  Keparat.  Justitiae  (Ed.  1519,  pp.  13-14). 


10  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

levied  in  secret,  had  no  effect  in  deterring  them  from  their 
evil  courses/ 

This  was  the  outcome  of  the  great  general  council,  on 
which  such  hopes  had  been  built  by  Christendom,  but  the 
good  fathers  of  Constance,  conscious  of  their  shortcomings 
in  the  matter  of  reform,  had  adopted  the  canon  Frequens, 
ordering  the  assembly  of  another  general  council  in  five 
years,  to  be  followed  by  successors  every  seven  years  there- 
after. One  was  accordingly  convoked  at  Siena  in  1423, 
to  be  summarily  dissolved  in  1424  by  the  presiding  papal 
legate,  when  the  demand  for  effective  measures  of  reform 
in  the  head  and  members  of  the  Church  grew  too  unman- 
nerly to  be  further  evaded.  The  next  general  council  was 
due  in  1431,  but  Pope  Martin  took  no  steps  for  its  assem- 
bling until  at  the  end  of  1430  it  was  made  plain  to  him 
that  Europe  was  determined  to  find,  with  him  or  without 
him,  some  means  of  attempting  a  purification  felt  to  be 
necessary  as  a  safeguard  against  a  revolutionary  uprising 
of  the  laity.^  Yet  scarcely  had  the  fathers  fairly  gathered 
in  the  Council  of  Basle,  when  Eugenius  IV.,  who  had  mean- 
while succeeded  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter,  sent  orders  for 
its  dissolution  to  his  legate,  Cardinal  Giuliano  Cesarini. 

The  legate,  who  had  better  opportunity  than  his  master 
of  estimating  the  temper  of  Christendom,  refused  obedience, 
and  his  letter  explaining  the  reasons  of  his  contumacy 
affords  a  curious  picture  of  the  internal  condition  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  relations  existing  between  it  and  the 
laity.  The  extreme  corruption  of  ecclesiastical  morals 
had  been  the  principal  object  of  convoking  the  council,  and 
had  given  rise  to  a  feeling  of  fierce  hostility  towards  the 
Church.  To  this  was  attributable  the  success  which  had 
attended  the  Hussite  movement,  and  unless  the  people 

1  Wilkins  III.  364-5. 

2  Jo.  de  Kagusio  Init.  et  Prosec,  Con.  Basil.  (Monumentt.  Con.  Gen.  Ssec.  XV. 
T.  I.).— Concil.  Senensis  (Harduin.  VIII.  1025-6).— Ad.  Concil.  Basil.  (Harduin.  VIII. 
1108-10).— Raynald.  Annal.  ann.  1425,  n.  .3,  4. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  11 

could   have   reason  to  anticipate  amendment,  there  was 
ample  cause  to  fear  a  general  imitation  of  the  Hussites. 
So  many  provincial  synods  were  daily  held  without  result 
that  confidence  was  no  longer  felt  in  the  ordinary  ecclesi- 
astical machinery ;  the  state  of  the  public  mind  grew  con- 
stantly more  threatening  as  fresh  scandals  were  wrought 
by  the  clergy,  and  the  hopes  entertained  of  the  council 
were  the  only  restraint  which  prevented  the  breaking  out 
of  a  widespread  revolt.     As  a  proof  of  his  assertions,  the 
legate  refers  to  various  local  troubles.     Magdeburg  had 
expelled  her  archbishop  and  clergy,  was  preparing  waggons 
with  which  to  fight  after  the  Bohemian  fashion,  and  was 
said  to  have  sent  for  a  Hussite  to  command  her  forces. 
Passau  had  revolted  against  her  bishop,  and  was  even  then 
laying  close  siege  to  his  citadel.     Bamberg  was  engaged  in 
a  violent  quarrel  with  her  bishop  and  chapter.     These  cities 
were   regarded  as  the  centres  of  formidable  secret  con- 
federacies, and  were  believed  to  be  negotiating  with  the 
Hussites.^     The  good  fathers  evidently  recognised  the  full 
magnitude  of  the  danger.     The  results  of  the  inaction  of 
the  Council  of  Constance  were  full  of  pregnant  warnings. 
The  reformers  could  no  longer  be  brought  to  trust  the 
papacy,  and  those  who  might  secretly  deprecate  reform 
were  fully  alive  to  the  threatening  aspect  of  affairs.     They 
therefore  addressed  themselves  resolutely  to  the  removal 
of  the  cause.     All  who  were  guilty  of  public  concubinage 
were  ordered  to  dismiss  their  consorts  within  sixty  days 
after  the  promulgation  of  the  canon,  under  pain  of  depriv- 
ation of  revenue  for  three  months.     Persistent  contumacy 
or  repetition  of  the  offence  was  visited  with  suspension 
from   functions    and   stipend   until   satisfactory   evidence 
should  be  afforded  of  repentance  and  amendment.     Bishops 
who   neglected   to   enforce   the   law  were  to  be  held  as 

1  iEneae  Sylvii  Corament.   de  G-est.  Cone.  Basil,  ad  caJcem  (0pp.  Basil.  1551,  pp. 
66-70).— Cy.  Sigismundi  Imp.  Avisam.  ann.  1433  (Goldast  ill.  427  sqq.). 


12  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

sharing  the  guilt  which  they  allowed  to  pass  unpunished ; 
and  those  prelates  who  were  above  the  jurisdiction  of  local 
tribunals  or  synods  were  to  be  remanded  to  Rome  for  trial. 
The  council  deplored  the  extensive  prevalence  of  the 
"  cullagium,"  by  which  those  to  whom  was  entrusted  the 
administration  of  the  Church  did  not  hesitate  to  enjoy  a 
filthy  gain  by  selling  licences  to  sin.  A  curse  was  pro- 
nounced on  all  involved  in  such  transactions :  they  were 
to  share  the  penalties  of  the  guilt  which  they  encouraged, 
and  were,  in  addition,  to  pay  a  fine  of  double  the  amount 
of  their  iniquitous  receipts.^  In  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 
moreover,  agreed  upon  in  1438  between  the  Emperor 
Albert  II.  and  Charles  VII.  of  France,  the  regulation 
confiscating  three  months'  revenues  of  concubinary  priests 
was  embodied.^ 

Honest,  well-meant  legislation  this  ;  yet  the  fathers  of 
the  council  or  the  princes  of  Christendom  could  hardly 
deceive  themselves  with  the  expectation  that  it  would 
prove  effectual,  even  if  the  Basilian  canons  had  been  con- 
firmed by  the  Holy  See  and  accepted  by  the  Church  at 
large.  If  legislation  could  accomplish  the  desired  result, 
there  had  already  been  enough  of  it  since  the  days  of 
Siricius.  The  compilations  of  canon  law  were  full  of 
admirable  regulations,  by  which  generation  after  generation 
had  endeavoured  to  attain  the  same  object  by  every 
imaginable  modification  of  inquisition  and  penalty.  In- 
genuity had  been  exhausted  in  devising  laws  which  were 
only  promulgated  to  be  despised  and  forgotten.  Some- 
thing more  was  wanting,  and  that  something  could  not  be 
had  without  overturning  the  elaborate  structure  so  skilfully 
and  laboriously  built  up  by  the  craft  and  enthusiasm  of 
ten  centuries. 

How  utterly  impotent,  in  fact,  were  the  efforts  of  the 

1  Concil.  Basiliens.  Sess.  xx.  (Jan.  22,  1435.) 

2  Pragm.  Sanct.  ann.  1438  cap.  31  (Goldast.  I.  403).     D'Argentre,  Collect.  Judic. 
de  novis  Erroribus,  I.,  II.,  234). 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  13 

council,  is  evident  when,  within  five  years  after  the  adoption 
of  the  BasiUan  canons.  Doctor  Kokkius,  in  a  sermon 
preached  before  the  Council  of  Freysingen,  could  scarcely 
find  words  strong  enough  to  denounce  the  evil  courses  of 
the  clergy  as  a  class  ;^  and  when,  within  fifteen  years,  we 
find  Nicholas  V.  declaring  that  the  clergy  enjoyed  such 
immunity  that  they  scarcely  regarded  incontinence  as  a 
sin — which  is  perhaps  no  wonder,  when  he  prohibited  the 
members  and  officials  of  the  Curia  from  keeping  concubines, 
under  pain  of  forfeiture  of  office  and  disability  for  prefer- 
ment, unless  they  should  previously  have  obtained  letters 
of  absolution  from  the  Holy  See — the  perennial  font  of 
corruption  which  meets  us  at  every  turn.^ 

Shrouded  under  a  thin  veil  of  formality,  this  in  sub- 
stance indicates  the  degrading  source  of  revenue  which 
was  so  energetically  condemned  in  inferior  officials.  The 
pressing  and  insatiable  pecuniary  needs  of  the  papal  court, 
indeed,  rendered  it  impotent  as  a  reformer,  however 
honest  the  wearer  of  the  tiara  might  himself  be  in  desiring 
to  rescue  the  Church  from  its  infamy.  Reckless  expendi- 
ture and  universal  venality  were  insuperable  obstacles  to 
any  comprehensive  and  effisctive  measures  of  reforma- 
tion. Every  one  was  preoccupied  either  in  devising  or  in 
resisting  extortion.  The  local  synods  were  engaged  in 
quarrelling  over  the  subsidies  demanded  by  Rome,  while 
the  chronicles  of  the  period  are  filled  with  complaints  of 
the  indulgences  granted  year  after  year  to  raise  money  for 
various  purposes.  Sometimes  the  objects  alleged  are 
indignantly  declared  to  be  purely  supposititious ;  at  other 
times  intimations  are  thrown  out  that  the  collections 
were  diverted  to  the  private  gain  of  the   popes    and  of 

1  Quoniam  nostri  temporis  clerici  sunt,  heu,  affectu  crudeles,  affatu  mendaces, 
gestu  incompositi,  victu  luxuriosi,  actu  impii,  et  sub  vacuo  sanctitatis  nomine  sancti 
nominis  derogant  disciplinee  (Hartzheim  V.  266).  The  council  contented  itself  with 
repeating  the  canons  of  Basle. 

2  Lib.  III.  Tit.  i.  c.  3,  in  Septimo.  "Nisi  inhabilitatem  suam.  antea  per  dictae 
sedis  litteras  obtinuerint  absolvi." 


14  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

their  creatures/  The  opinion  which  the  Church  in 
general  entertained  of  the  papal  court  is  manifested 
with  sufficient  distinctness  in  a  letter  from  Ernest, 
Archbishop  of  Magdeburg,  to  his  ambassador  at  Rome. 
The  prelate  states  that  he  has  deposited  five  hundred 
florins  in  Fugger's  bank  at  Augsburg,  for  which  he  desires 
to  procure  certain  bulls,  one  to  enable  him  to  grant  indul- 
gences, the  other  to  compel  the  chapter  of  Magdeburg  to 
allow  him  to  dispose  of  the  salt-works  of  Halle,  in  defiance 
of  the  vxsted  rights  of  his  Church  —  thus  taking  for 
granted  a  cynicism  of  venality  which  it  would  be  difficult 
to  parallel  in  the  secular  affairs  of  the  most  corrupt  of 
courts.^  Even  the  power  to  dispense  from  the  vow  of 
continence  was  occasionally  turned  to  account  in  this 
manner.  One  of  the  accusations  against  John  XXIII. 
was  that  for  600  ducats  he  had  released  Jacques  de  Vitry, 

1  Comp.  Doeringii  Chvon.  passim  Doringk  was  minister  or  head  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan order  in  Saxony,  aud  iherefore  may  be  considered  an  unexceptionable 
witness. 

In  the  Polish  diet  of  1459,  one  of  its  leading  members  brought  forward  a  series 
of  propositions  which  showed  the  feelings  entertained  by  the  people  towards  papal 
exactions — "The  Bishop  of  Kome  has  invented  a  most  unjust  motive  for  imposing 
taxes — the  war  against  the  infidels  .  .  .  The  Pope  feigns  that  he  employs  his 
treasures  in  the  erection  of  churches  ;  but  in  fact  he  employs  them  to  enrich  his 
relations,"  &c. — Krasinski,  Reformation  in  Poland,  i.  96. 

The  councils  of  Constance  and  Basle  had  produced,  for  a  time,  a  spirit  of  great 
independence.  John  of  Frankfort  does  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  the  papal  autho- 
rity is  not  binding  when  in  opposition  to  the  law  of  God — "  Unde  patet  quod  nee 
papalis  vel  et  imperialis  constitutio  legi  Dei  obvians  possit  dici  recta ;  nee  aliquis 
ipsorum  potest  licite  mandare  quod  sua  constitutio  servetur  a  subditis  "  (Johann.  de 
Francford.  contra  Feymeros).  According  to  the  decisions  of  the  Decretalists,  this 
was  rank  here^y,  and  yet  John  of  Frankfort  was  one  of  the  leading  minds  of  the 
period,  and  of  unquestioned  orthodoxy.  He  was  a  popular  preacher,  a  doctor  of 
theology,  chaplain  and  secretary  of  the  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  and  a  bold 
disputant  against  the  Hussites.  He  records  with  his  own  hand  that,  as  inquisi- 
tor, he  convicted  and  burned,  July  4,  1429,  at  Liiders,  an  unfortunate  heretic  who 
denied  the  propriety  of  invoking  the  Virgin  and  the  saints.  Under  the  skilful 
management,  however,  of  Nicholas  V.  and  Pius  II.  this  spirit  of  independence 
was  kept  in  check,  to  again  revive,  in  the  next  century,  in  a  more  determined 
form. 

2  Ludewig  Reliq.  Msctorum.  XI.  415. — Under  Boniface  IX.,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  century,  claims  arising  from  simoniacal  transactions  were  constantly 
and  openly  prosecuted  in  the  court  of  the  Papal  Auditor. — Theod.  a  Niem  de  Vit. 
Joann.  XXIII. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  15 

a  Hospitaller,  from  his  vows,  had   restored  him  to  the 
world,  and  enabled  him  to  marry/ 

The  aspirations  of  Christendom  had  culminated  in  the 
Council  of  Basle  in  the  most  potent  form  known  to  the 
Church  Universal.  If  the  results  were  scarce  perceptible 
while  the  influences  of  the  council  were  yet  recent,  and 
while  the  antagonistic  papacy  was  under  the  control  of 
men  sincerely  desirous  to  promote  the  best  interests  of 
the  Church,  such  as  Nicholas  V.  and  Pius  II.,  we  can  feel 
no  wonder  if  the  darkness  continued  to  grow  thicker  and 
deeper  under  the  rule  of  such  pontiffs  as  Sixtus  IV., 
Innocent  VIII.,  and  Alexander  VI.  Savonarola  found  an 
inexhaustible  subject  of  declamation  in  the  fearful  vices  of 
the  ecclesiastics  of  his  times,  whom  he  describes  as  ruffiani 
e  mezzani?  In  the  assembly  of  the  Trois  Etats  of  France, 
held  at  Tours  in  1484,  the  orator  of  the  Estates,  Jean  de 
Rely,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Angers,  in  his  official  address 
to  Charles  VIII.  declared  it  to  be  notorious  that  the 
reUgious  orders  had  lost  all  devotion,  discipline,  and 
obedience  to  their  rule,  while  the  canons  (and  he  was 
himself  a  canon  of  Paris)  had  sunk  far  below  the  laity  in 
their  morals,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  Church.^  Yet 
what  could  be  accomplished  by  an  uncompromising  re- 
former was  shown  when,  about  1490,  Niccolo  Bonafede, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Chiusi,  was  sent  to  Trani  as  archi- 
episcopal  vicar.  He  found  that  nearly  all  the  priests  openly 
kept  concubines  and  brought  up  their  children  without 
shame — the  primicier,  in  fact,  had  eleven  in  his  house. 
Bonafede  ordered  that  all  should  dismiss  their  companions 

1  Concil.  Constantiens.  Sess.  xi. 

2  "  Si  vous  saviez  tout  ce  que  je  sais  !  des  choses  degotitantes  !  des  cboses  horri- 
bles !  vous  en  fremiriez  !  Quand  je  pense  a  tout  cela,  a  la  vie  que  menent  les  pretres, 
je  ne  puis  retenir  mes  larmes."  And  again,  "  Ma  peggio  ancora.  Quelle  che  sta  la 
notte  con  la  concubina,  quell'  altro  con  il  garzone,  e  poi  la  mattina  va  a  dire  messa, 
pensa  tu  come  la  va.  Che  vuoi  tu  fare  di  quella  messa  ? " — Jerome  Savonarole  d'apres 
les  documents  originaux,  par  F.  T.  Perrens,  pp.  71-2.     Pari-;,  1856. 

3  Masseliu,  Journal  des  Etats  de  Tours,  pp.  197-99. 


16  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

within  eight  days,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of  benefice, 
and  that  the  women  should  leave  the  diocese,  under  pain 
of  scourging.^  He  had  already  given  evidence  of  his 
tenacity  of  purpose,  and  his  commands  were  obeyed  by 
all  but  one,  in  which  case  the  priest  was  deprived  of  his 
preferment,  and  the  unfortunate  woman  was  duly  flogged 
and  banished.^ 

In  England,  the  facts  developed  by  the  examination 
which  Innocent  VIII.  in  1489  authorised  Morton,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  to  make  into  the  condition  of  the 
religious  houses,  present  a  state  of  affairs  quite  as  bad. 
Henry  VI  I. 's  first  Parliament,  in  1485,  had  endeavoured 
to  accomplish  some  reform  by  passing  an  Act  empowering 
the  episcopal  authorities  to  imprison  all  priests  and  monks 
convicted  of  carnal  lapses,^  but  this,  like  all  similar  legis- 
lation, whether  secular  or  ecclesiastical,  appears  to  have 
been  useless.  Innocent  describes  the  monasteries,  in  his 
bull  to  the  archbishop,  as  wholly  fallen  from  their  original 
discipline,  and  this  is  fully  confirmed  by  the  results  of  the 
visitation.  The  old  and  wealthy  abbey  of  St.  Albans,  for 
instance,  was  little  more  than  a  den  of  prostitutes,  with 
whom  the  monks  lived  openly  and  avowedly.  In  two 
priories  under  its  jurisdiction  the  nuns  had  been  turned 
out  and  their  places  filled  with  courtesans,  to  whom  the 
monks  of  St.  Albans  publicly  resorted,  indulging  in  all 
manner  of  shameless  and  riotous  living,  the  details  of 
which  can  well  be  spared.*  These  irregularities  were 
emulated  by  the  secular  ecclesiastics.  Among  the  records 
of  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  is  a  memorial  from  the  gentle- 
men and  farmers  of  Carnarvonshire,  complaining  that  the 
seduction  of  their  wives  and  daughters  was  pursued  syste- 

1  Leopardi,  Vita  di  Niccolo  Bonafede,  p.  18  (Pesaro,  1832). 

2  1  Henr.  VII.  4. 

3  Wilkins  III.  630-33. 

4  Yet  in  the  letter  of  Archbishop  Morton  to  the  Abbot  reciting  all  these  enormities, 
he  is  not  even  threatened  with  deposition,  but  only  invited  to  mend  his  ways. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  17 

matically  by  the  clergy.^  That  the  prevalence  of  these 
practices  was  thoroughly  understood  is  shown  in  a  book  of 
instructions  for  parish  priests  drawn  up  by  a  canon  of 
Lilleshall  about  this  period.  In  enumerating  the  causes 
for  which  a  parson  may  shrive  a  man  not  of  his  own  parish, 
he  includes  the  case  in  which  the  penitent  has  committed  sin 
with  the  concubine  or  daughter  of  his  own  parish  priest.^ 

Spain  was  equally  infected.  The  Council  of  Aranda, 
in  1473,  denounced  bitterly  the  evil  courses  by  which  the 
clergy  earned  for  themselves  the  wrath  of  God  and  the 
contempt  of  man,  and  it  endeavoured  to  suppress  the 
sempiternal  vice  by  the  means  which  had  been  so  often 
ineffectually  tried  —  visitations,  fines,  excommunication, 
suspension,  forfeiture  of  benefice,  and  imprisonment — but 
all  to  as  little  purpose  as  before.^  Vainly  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  in  repeated  edicts  sought  to  restrain  the  evil  by 
attacking  the  concubines  with  fines,  scourging  and  banish- 
ment, for  the  male  offenders  were  beyond  their  jurisdic- 
tion.* The  trouble  continued  without  abatement,  and  the 
Council  of  Seville,  in  1512,  felt  itself  obliged  to  repeat  as 
usual  all  the  old  denunciations  and  penalties,  including 
those  against  ecclesiastics  who  officiated  at  the  marriages 
of  their  children,  which  it  prohibited  for  the  future  under 
a  fine  of  2000  maravedis — a  mulct  which  it  likewise  pro- 
vided for  those  who  committed  the  indecency  of  having 
their  children  as  assistants  in  the  solemnity  of  the  Mass.^ 
We  shall  see  hereafter  how  fruitless  were  all  these  efforts 
to  cure  the  incurable. 

1  Froude's  History  of  England,  Ch.  III. 

2  Or  gef  hym  self  had  done  a  synne 
By  the  prestes  sybbe  kynne, 
Moder  or  suster,  or  hys  lemmon 
Or  by  hys  doghter  gef  he  had  on. 
John  Myrc's  Instructions  for  Parish  Priests,  p.  26  (Early  English  Text  Society, 
1868). 

3  Concil.  Arandens.  ann.  1473  c.  ix.  (Aguirre  V.  345-6.) 

4  Novisima  Recopilacion,  Lib.  xii.,  Tit.  xxvi.,  leyes  3-5. 

5  Concil.  Hispalens.  ann.  1512  can.  xxvi.,  xxvii.  (Aguirre  V.  371-2.) 

VOL.  II.  B 


18  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

What  was  the  condition  of  morals  in  Germany  may  be 
inferred  from  some  proceedings  of  the  chapter  of  Bruns- 
wick in  1476.  The  canons  intimate  that  the  commission 
of  scandals  and  crimes  has  reached  a  point  at  which  there 
is  danger  of  their  losing  the  inestimable  privilege  of 
exemption  from  episcopal  jurisdiction.  They  therefore 
declare  that  for  the  future  the  canons,  vicars,  and  officiating 
clergy  ought  not  to  keep  their  mistresses  and  concubines 
publicly  in  their  houses,  or  live  with  them  within  the 
bounds  of  the  church,  and  those  who  persist  in  doing  so 
after  three  warnings  shall  be  suspended  from  their  prebends 
until  they  render  due  satisfaction.^  In  this  curious  glimpse 
into  the  domestic  life  of  the  cathedral  close  it  is  evident 
that  the  worthy  canons  were  moved  by  no  shame  for  the 
publicity  of  their  guilt,  but  only  by  a  wholesome  dread  of 
giving  to  their  bishop  an  excuse  for  procuring  the  forfeiture 
of  their  dearly  prized  right  of  self-judgment. 

The  Hungarian  Church,  by  a  canon  dating  as  far  back 
as  1382,  had  finally  adopted  a  pecuniary  mulct  as  the  most 
efficacious  mode  of  correcting  offenders.  The  fine  was 
five  marks  of  current  coin,  and  by  granting  one-half  to  the 
informer  or  archdeacon,  and  the  other  to  the  archiepiscopal 
chamber,  it  was  reasonably  hoped  that  the  rule  might  be 
enforced.  As  might  have  been  expected,  this  resulted, 
not  in  reforming  the  clergy,  but  in  providing  a  source  of 
revenue  for  the  prelates,  so  that  all  parties  were  interested 
in  maintaining  a  flourishing  condition  of  immorahty,  as 
Jacopo  della  Marchia,  one  of  the  fiercest  persecutors  of 
heresy,  found  to  his  cost.  In  1436  he  was  sent  by 
Eugenius  IV.  as  inquisitor  of  Hungary  and  Austria  to 
check  the  spread  of  Hussitism.  His  unsparing  severity 
excited  such  general  terror  that  he  is  said  to  have  received 
the  submission  of  fifty-five  thousand  converts,  but  when, 
at  Fiinfkirchen,  he  paused  in  his  missionary  labours   to 

1  Statut.  Eccles,  in  Braunschweig,  cap.  75  (Mayer,  Thes.  Jur,  Eccles.  I.  124). 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  19 

reform  the  concubinarian  priests,  his  resolution  gave  way, 
for  they  repelled  his  interference  so  energetically  that  he 
was  forced  to  fly  for  his  life.  Pope  and  Emperor  were 
invoked,  and  he  was  enabled  to  return,  but  we  hear  no 
more  of  any  effort  on  his  part  to  meddle  with  the  clergy 
and  their  partners/  That  matters  remained  unaltered  is 
shown  by  two  synods  of  Gran,  one  in  1450  and  the  other 
in  1480,  which  reiterate  the  complaint,  not  only  that  the 
archdeacons  and  other  officials  kept  the  whole  fine  to 
themselves,  but  also,  what  was  even  worse,  that  they  per- 
mitted the  criminals  to  persevere  in  sin,  in  order  to  make 
money  by  allowing  them  to  go  unpunished.^  This  state 
of  affairs  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  the  description  of 
his  prelates  by  Matthias  Corvinus  be  correct.  They  were 
worldly  princes,  whose  energies  were  devoted  to  wringing 
from  their  flocks  fabulous  revenues  to  be  squandered 
in  riotous  living  on  the  hordes  of  cooks  and  concubines 
who  pandered  to  their  appetites.^  The  morals  of  the 
regular  clergy  were  no  better,  for  a  diet  held  by  Vladislas 
II.  in  1498  complained  of  the  manner  in  which  abbots  and 
other  monastic  dignitaries  enriched  themselves  from  the 
revenues  of  their  offices,  and  then,  returning  to  the  world, 
publicly  took  waves,  to  the  disgrace  of  their  order.* 

In  Pomerania  the  evil  had  at  length  partially  cured 
itself,  for  the  female  companions  of  the  clergy  seem  to 
have  been  regarded  as  wives  in  all  but  the  blessing  of  the 
Church.  Benedict,  Bishop  of  Camin,  in  1492  held  a  synod 
in  which  he  quaintly  but  vehemently  objurgates  his 
ecclesiastics  for  this  wickedness  ;  declares  that  no  man 
can  part  such  couples  joined  by  the  devil ;  alludes  to 
their  offspring  as  beasts  creeping  over  the  earth,  and  has 

1  Wadding,  Annal.  Minorum,  ann.  1437,  n.  6-12. 

2  Synod.  Strigonens.  ann.  1382,  1450,  1480  (Batthyani  III.  275,  481,  557). 

3  Galeoti  Martii  de  dictis  et  factis  Matthiae  Regis  cap.  xi.  (Schwandtneri  Rer. 
Hungar.  Script.). 

*  Synod.  Reg.  ann,  1498  c.  16.  (Batthyani  I.  551). 


20  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

his  spleen  peculiarly  stirred  by  the  cloths  of  Leyden  and 
costly  ornaments  with  which  the  fair  sinners  were  bedecked, 
to  the  scandal  of  honest  women/  His  indignation  was 
wasted  on  a  hardened  generation,  for  his  successor,  Bishop 
Martin,  on  his  accession  to  the  see  in  1499,  found  the 
custom  still  unchecked.  The  new  bishop  promptly 
summoned  a  synod  at  Sitten  in  1500,  where  he  reiterated 
the  complaints  of  Benedict,  adding  that  the  priests  convert 
the  patrimony  of  Christ  into  marriage  portions  for  their 
children,  and  procure  the  transmission  of  benefices  from 
father  to  son,  as  though  glorying  in  the  perpetuation  of 
their  shame.  AVhat  peculiarly  exasperated  the  good 
prelate  was  that  the  place  of  honour  was  accorded  as  a 
matter  of  course  to  the  priests  and  their  consorts  at  all  the 
merry-makings  and  festivities  of  their  parishioners,  which 
shows  how  fully  these  unions  were  recognised  as  legiti- 
mate, and  apparently,  for  prudential  reasons,  encouraged 
by  the  people.^ 

Similar  customs,  or  worse,  doubtless  prevailed  in  Sles- 
wick,  for  when  Eggard  was  consecrated  bishop  in  1494,  he 
signalised  the  commencement  of  his  episcopate  by  forbid- 
ding his  clergy  to  keep  such  female  companions.  The 
result  was  that  before  the  year  expired  he  was  forced  to 
abandon  his  see,  and  five  years  later  he  died,  a  miserable 
exile  in  Rome.^ 

In  fact,   so  loose  had  become  the  conception  as   to 
celibacy  that  in  some  places  priestly  marriage  was  quietly 

1  Wise  Hist.  Episc.  Camin.  c.  41. — These  irregnlarities  were  not  of  recent  intro- 
duction. The  canon  referred  to  is  copied  almost  literally  from  a  synod  held  nearly 
forty  years  before  by  Bishop  Henning.  In  fact,  from  the  description  given  by  the 
latter  of  the  drinking,  gambling,  trading,  and  licentiousness  of  the  ecclesiastics  of 
Camin,  there  was  little  of  the  clerical  character  about  them. — Synod.  Camin.  ann. 
1454  (Hartzheim  V.  930). 

2  WiaeHist.  Episc.  Camin.  c.  42.— Synod.  Sedinens.  c.  5. 

In  West  Prussia,  in  1497,  the  synod  of  Ermeland  expresses  itself  as  scandalised 
by  the  priests  taking  their  companions  publicly  to  fairs  and  other  gatherings,  and, 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  practice,  it  offers  to  secret  informers  one-half  of  the  fine  imposed 
on  such  indiscretions.— Synod.  Warmiens.  ann.  1497  c.  xxxix.  (Hartzheim  V.  668). 

3  Boissen  Chron.  Slesvicens.  ann.  1494. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  21 

resumed,  subject  to  the  condition  of  resigning  benefices. 
In  a  formulary  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  are  formulae 
for  conferring  parish  churches,  canonries,  and  precentor- 
ships  thus  vacated  by  the  wedlock  of  the  incumbent/ 
Other  churches  had  become  established  as  hereditary, 
descending  from  father  to  son,  and  only  in  default  of  male 
issue  did  their  collation  revert  to  the  bishop.  The  old 
rule  rendering  the  bastards  of  priests  incapable  of  prefer- 
ment still  remained  on  the  books,  but  dispensations 
remo\dng  such  disabilities  for  benefices  without  cure  of 
souls  were  remanded  to  episcopal  jurisdiction ;  a  regular 
formula  was  provided  for  such  cases,  and,  in  the  prevalent 
venality  of  the  period,  we  may  assume  that  they  could  be 
had  by  any  applicant  at  a  moderate  price. ^ 

The  monastic  Orders  were  no  better  than  the  secular 
clergy.  When  Ximenes  was  made  Provincial  of  the 
Franciscan  Order  in  Spain,  he  set  himself  earnestly  at 
work  to  force  the  brethren  to  live  according  to  the  rule. 
The  "  Conventuals,"  as  the  great  body  of  the  Order  was 
called  to  distinguish  them  from  the  "  Observantines,"  led 
disorderly  lives,  almost  purely  secular,  and  refused  abso- 
lutely to  submit  to  the  observance  of  their  vows.  King 
Ferdinand  being  appealed  to,  pronounced  sentence  of 
banishment  upon  them,  and  they  absolutely  preferred 
existence  in  exile  to  the  insupportable  yoke  of  their  Order. 
Yet  they  considered  themselves  so  aggrieved  that  when 
they  left  Toledo  they  marched  in  procession  through  the 
Puerta  Visagra  with  a  crucifix  at  their  head,  singing  the 
113th  Psalm,  "In  exitu  Israel  de  Egypto."  When 
Ximenes  was  promoted  to  the  primatial  see  of  Toledo, 

1  Formularium  Instrumentorum  ad  usum  Curie  Romane,  fol.  20a,  91a,  101b 
(s.l.c.a.,  Hain  7276.) — "  Cum  itaque  parochialis  ecclesia  N.  loci  de  N.  quam  nuper 
dilectus  noster  N.  de  N.  ipsius  ecclesie  rector  obtinebat  ex  eo  vacet  et  vacare  nosca- 
tur  ad  presens  quod  dictus  P[resbyter]  matrimonium  per  verba  de  presenti  legitime 
cum  quadam  muliari  contraxit  illudque  secundum  morem  patrie  solemnizavit  et  per 
carnalem  copulam  confirmavit,"  etc. 

2  Ibid.,  fol.  20b,  21a. 


22  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  malcontents  appealed  to  the  Vicar  General  of  the 
Order  in  Rome,  who  came  to  Spain  and  warmly  espoused 
their  cause,  being  only  forced  to  desist  by  the  decided 
stand  taken  by  Queen  Isabella  in  favour  of  Ximenes/  It 
was  the  same  with  the  other  monastic  Orders.  A  bull  of 
Alexander  VI.,  issued  in  1496  for  the  purpose  of  reforming 
the  Benedictines,  describes  the  inhabitants  of  many  estab- 
lishments of  both  sexes  in  that  ancient  and  honoured 
institution  as  indulging  in  the  most  shameless  profligacy  ; 
and  marriage  itself  was  apparently  not  infrequently  prac- 
tised.^ Savonarola  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  nuns 
in  their  convents  became  worse  than  harlots.^  Even  the 
strictest  of  all  the  orders — the  Cistercian — yielded  to  the 
prevailing  laxity.  A  general  chapter,  held  in  1516, 
denounces  the  intolerable  abuse  indulged  in  by  some 
abbots,  who  threw  off  all  obedience  to  the  rule,  and  dared 
to  keep  women  under  pretence  of  requiring  their  domestic 
services.*  To  fully  appreciate  the  force  of  this  indication, 
it  is  requisite  to  bear  in  mind  the  stringency  of  the  regula- 

1  Robles,  Vida  del  Card.  Ximenes  de  Cisneros,  cap.  xii.,  xiii.  Cf.  Wadding, 
Annal  Minor,  ann.  1495,  n.  34-36  ;  ann.  1496,  n.  10-15. 

When  the  Franciscan  general  expressed  to  Isabella  at  great  length  the  unworthi- 
ness  and  demerits  of  Ximenes,  she  quietly  asked  him  whether  he  was  sane  and  knew 
to  whom  he  was  speaking. — Gomesius  de  Rebus  gestis  Fr.  Ximenii,  Lib.  I.  fol.  14. 

This  refoi-mation  was  not  lasting.  In  1545  Philip  II.  threatened  to  expel  them  all 
from  Spain  :  Pius  IV.  proposed  that  they  should  gradually  become  extinct,  by  for- 
bidding the  reception  of  novices ;  but  he  finally  empowered  his  legate  to  reduce  them 
to  observance  of  the  rule  or  to  extinguish  them,  as  Philip  might  prefer. — Bollinger, 
Beitrage  zur  politischen,  kirchlichen  u.  Cultur-Geschichte,  I.  617  (Regensburg,  1862). 

2  Rursus  in  certis  monasteriis  dicti  ordinis,  ipsee  moniales  apertis  claustris, 
indifferenter  omnes  homines  etiam  suspectos  intromittunt,  ac  extra  monasteria  in 
curiis,  castris  et  plateis  vagantes,  plura  scandala  committunt  .  .  .  Similiter  religiosi 
qui  in  sacris  ordinibus  constituti  non  sunt,  relicto  habito  regulari,  matrimonium 
contrahere  dicuntur.  .  .  .  Prseterea  omnes  et  singulos  monachos  et  moniales  re- 
gulam  S.  Benedicti  hujusmodi  expresse  vel  tacite  professes,  qui  habitum  monas- 
ticum  sine  dispensatione  legitima  reliquerunt  aut  matrimonia  contraxerunt,  ad 
monasteria,  si  ilia  exiverunt,  redire  et  habitum  monasticum  ac  velum  nigrum  reas- 
sumere  dicta  auctoritate  compellatis.— App.  ad  Chron.»  Cassinens.  Ed.  Dubreul, 
pp.  902-3. 

The  words  italicised  would  seem  to  indicate  that  monks  and  nuns  occasionally 
married  without  even  quitting  their  monasteries. 

3  Perrens,  Jerome  Savonarole,  p.  84. 

4  Statut.  Ord.  Cisterc.  ann.  1516  (Martene  Thesaur.  IV.  1636-7). 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  23 

tions   which  forbade  the   foot   of  woman  to  pollute  the 
sacred  retirement  of  the  Cistercian  monasteries/ 

The  efforts  constantly  made  to  check  these  abuses  pro- 
duced little  result.     A  Carthusian  monk,  writing  in  1489, 

1  Thus,  in  1193,  the  general  chapter  of  the  Order  promulgated  the  rule — "  Si  conti- 
gerit  mulieres  abbatiam  ordininis  nostri  ex  consensu  intrare,  ipse  abbas  a  patre  abbate 
deponatur  absque  retractatione.  Et  quicumque  sine  conscientia  abbatis  introduxerit, 
de  domo  ejiciatur,  non  reversurus,  nisi  per  generale  capitulum." — (Capit.  General. 
Cisterc.  ann.  1193  cap.  6— apud  Martene  Thesaur.  IV.  1276.)  The  strictness  with 
which  this  was  enforced  is  illustrated  by  the  proceedings  in  1205  against  the  abbot 
of  the  celebrated  house  of  Pontigny,  because  he  had  allowed  the  Queen  of  France 
and  her  train  to  be  present  at  a  sermon  in  the  chapel  and  a  procession  in  the  cloisters, 
and  to  spend  two  nights  in  the  infirmary.  He  adduced  in  his  defence  a  special 
rescript  of  the  Pope  and  a  permission  from  the  head  of  the  Order  in  favour 
of  the  Queen,  but  these  were  pronounced  insufficient,  and  sentence  was  passed  that 
he  merited  instant  deposition  "  quia  tam  enorme  factum  sustinuit,  in  totius  ordinis 
injuriam,"  but  that,  in  consequence  of  the  powerful  intercession  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Rheims  and  other  bishops,  he  was  allowed  to  escape  with  lighter  punishment. — 
(Hist.  Monast.  Pontiniac. — Martene  Thesaur.  Ill,  1245.) 

This  rule,  indeed,  was  almost  universal  in  the  ancient  monasteries.  The  great 
abbey  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours  preserved  it  inviolate  until  the  incursions  of  the  North- 
men rendered  the  house  an  asylum  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  territory, 
and  the  prohibition  was  subsequently  revived  and  formally  approved  by  Leo  VII.  in 
938  (Leonis  P.P.  VII.  Epist.  vi.).  In  that  of  Sithieu,  from  the  time  of  its  founda- 
tion early  in  the  seventh  century,  it  was  preserved  without  infraction  for  more  than 
three  centuries.  Even  the  licence  of  the  Carlovingian  revolution  did  not  cause  its 
inobservance  ;  and  when,  amid  the  disorders  of  the  tenth  century,  the  Counts  of 
Flanders  became  lay  abbots  of  the  convent,  and  discipline  was  almost  forgotten, 
the  mediation  of  two  bishops  was  required  to  obtain  permission,  about  the  year  940, 
for  Adela,  Countess  of  Flanders,  prostrated  with  mortal  sickness,  to  be  carried  in  and 
laid  before  the  altar,  where  she  miraculously  recovered. — (De  Mirac.  S.  Bertin.  Lib. 
II.  c.  12.— Chron.  S.  Bertin.  c.  23,  24.) 

So  when  Boniface  founded  the  abbey  of  Fulda,  he  prohibited  the  entrance  of 
women  in  any  of  the  buildings,  even  including  the  church.  The  rule  was  preserved 
uninfringed  through  all  the  licence  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  and  when, 
in  1132,  the  Emperor  Lothair  came  to  Fulda  to  celebrate  Pentecost,  his  empress 
was  not  allowed  to  witness  the  ceremonies.  So  when  Frederick  Barbarossa,  in  1135, 
spent  his  Easter  there,  he  was  not  permitted  to  enter  the  town  because  his  wife  was 
with  him.  In  1370  Boniface  IX.,  at  the  request  of  the  Abbot  John  Merlaw,  relaxed 
the  rule  and  permitted  women  to  attend  at  the  services  of  the  church — shortly  after 
which  it  was  destroyed  by  lightning,  as  a  warning  for  the  future. — (Paullini  Chron. 
Badeslebiens.  §viii.) — An  equally  convincing  indication  of  the  favour  with  which 
this  regulation  was  regarded  by  Heaven  was  afforded  when  Abbot  Helisacar,  about 
the  year  830,  introduced  it  in  the  celebrated  monastery  of  St.  Riquier,  and  imme- 
diately the  number  of  miracles  worked  by  the  relics  of  the  saint  increased  in  a 
notable  degree  (Chron.  Centulensis  Lib.  iii.  cap.  iv.). — At  the  Grande  Chartreuse, 
founded  by  St.  Bruno  towards  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  women  were  not 
even  allowed  to  enter  on  the  lands  of  the  community. — Chart.  S.  Hugon,  Gratiano- 
polit.  (Patrolog.  T.  166,  p.  1571). 


24  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

deplores  the  fact  that  while  monasteries  were  everywhere 
being  reformed,  few  if  any  of  them  maintained  their 
morals,  but  returned  to  their  old  condition  immediately 
on  the  death  of  the  zealous  fathers  who  had  sought  to 
improve  them.^  That  condition  is  described  by  a  Benedic- 
tine abbot,  the  celebrated  Trithemius,  in  general  terms,  as 
that  of  dens  in  which  it  was  a  crime  to  be  without  sin,  their 
inhabitants  for  the  most  part  being  addicted  to  all  manner 
of  vices,  and  being  monks  only  in  name  and  habit.  ^ 

That  the  clergy,  as  a  body,  had  become  a  stench  in  the 
nostrils  of  the  people  is  evident  from  the  immense  applause 
which  greeted  all  attacks  upon  them.  In  1476  a  rustic  pro- 
phet arose  in  the  hamlet  of  Niklaushausen,  in  the  diocese  of 
Wurzburg,  who  was  a  fit  precursor  of  Muncer  and  John  of 
Leyden.  John  of  Niklaushausen  was  a  swineherd,  who  pro- 
fessed himself  inspired  by  the  Virgin  Mary.  From  the  Rhine- 
lands  to  Misnia,  and  from  Saxony  to  Bavaria,  immense 
multitudes  flocked  to  hear  him,  so  that  at  times  he 
preached  to  crowds  of  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  men. 
His  doctrines  were  revolutionary,  for  he  denounced 
oppression  both  secular  and  clerical ;  but  he  was  particu- 
larly severe  upon  the  vices  of  the  ecclesiastical  body.  A 
special  revelation  of  the  Virgin  had  informed  him  that 
God  could  no  longer  endure  them,  and  that  the  world 
could  not,  without  a  speedy  reformation,  be  saved  from 
the  divine  wi-ath  consequent  upon  them.^  The  unfor- 
tunate man  was  seized  by  the  Bishop  of  Wurzburg ;  the 
fanatical  zeal  of  his  unarmed  followers  was  easily  subdued, 
and  he  expiated  at  the  stake  his  revolt  against  the  powers 
that  were. 

1  Anon.  Carthus.  deRelig.  Orig.  cap.  XL.  (Martene  Ampliss.  Coll.  VI.  93). 

2  Johan.  de  Trittenheim  Lib.  Lugubris  de  Statu  et  Ruina  Monast.  Ordinis 
cap.  III. 

3  Annuntia  populo  fideli  meo,  et  die  quod  Filius  meus  avaritiam,  superbiam  et 
uxuriam  clericorum  et  sacerdotum  amplius  sastinere  nee  possit  nee  velit.  Unde 
nisi  se  quantocius  emendaverint,  totus  mundus  propter  eorum  scelera  periclitabitur. 
— Trithem.  Ohron.  Hirsaug.  ann.  1476. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  25 

Such  being  the  state  of  ecclesiastical  morality  through- 
out Europe,  there  can  be  little  wonder  if  reflecting  men 
sought  occasionally  to  reform  it  in  the  only  rational 
manner — not  by  an  endless  iteration  of  canons,  obsolete  as 
soon  as  published,  or  by  ingeniously  varied  penalties,  easily 
varied  or  compounded — but  by  restoring  to  the  minister 
of  Christ  the  right  to  indulge  legitimately  the  affections 
which  bigotry  might  pervert,  but  could  never  eradicate. 
Even  as  early  as  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
high  authority  of  Bishop  William  Durand  had  acknow- 
ledged the  inefficacy  of  penal  legislation,  and  had  suggested 
the  discipline  of  the  Greek  Church  as  affording  a  remedy 
worthy  of  consideration/  As  the  depravity  of  the  Church 
increased,  and  as  the  minds  of  men  gradually  awoke  from 
the  slumber  of  the  dark  ages,  and  shook  off  the  blind 
reverence  for  tradition,  the  suggestion  presented  itself  with 
renewed  force.  At  the  Council  of  Constance  Cardinal 
Zabarella  did  not  hesitate  to  suggest  that,  if  the  concu- 
binary  practices  of  the  clergy  could  not  be  suppressed,  it 
would  be  better  to  concede  to  them  the  privilege  of 
marriage,^  and  shortly  after  the  failure  of  the  council  to 
effect  a  reform  had  became  apparent,  Guillaume  Saignet 
wrote  a  tract  entitled  "  Lamentatio  ob  Caelibatum  Sacer- 
dotum,"  in  which  he  attacked  the  existing  system,  and 
called  forth  a  rejoinder  from  Gerson.  The  Carmelite, 
Thomas  Connecte,  was  a  wandering  preacher  who  filled 
France  and  the  Low  Countries  with  denunciations  of 
popular  vices,  both  lay  and  clerical.     His  eloquence  won 

1  Quum  pene  in  omnibus  conciliis  et  a  plerisque  Eomanis  pontificibus  super  cohi 
benda  et  punienda  clericorum  incontinentia,  et  eorum  honestate  servanda  multa 
hactenus  emanaverint  constituta  ;  et  nuUatenus  ipsorum  reformari  quiverit  correctio 
morum  :  .  .  .  videretur  pensandum  an  expediret  et  posset  provideri  quod  in  ecclesia 
Occidentali,  quantum  ad  votum  continentise,  servaretur  consuetudo  ecclesiae  Orien- 
talis,  quantum  ad  promovendos,  potissime  quum  tempore  Apostolorum  consuetudo 
ecclesiae  Orientalis  servaretur. — Durand.  de  Modo  General.  Concil.  P-  ii.  rubr.  46 
(Calixtus,  p.  537). 

2  Card.  Zabarell^e  Capit.  Agend.  in  Concil.  Con&tant.  cap.  xii.  (Von  der  Hardt 
T.  I.  P.  ix.  p.  525). 


26  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

immense  applause,  and  his  auditors  were  reckoned  in 
crowds  of  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  souls.  He  was 
especially  severe  on  the  concubinage  of  all  ranks  of  the 
clergy,  and  recommended  a  restoration  of  priestly  mar- 
riage as  the  appropriate  remedy ;  but  when,  in  1432,  he 
ventured  in  Rome  to  lash  the  corruption  of  the  Curia,  he 
was  found  to  be  a  heretic,  and  his  career  was  ended  at  the 
stake. ^  When  the  Council  of  Basle  was  earnestly  engaged 
in  the  endeavour  to  restore  forgotten  discipline,  the 
Emperor  Sigismund  laid  before  it  a  formula  of  reformation 
which  embraced  the  restoration  of  marriage  to  the  clergy. 
His  orator  drew  a  fearful  picture  of  the  evils  caused  by  the 
rule  of  celibacy — evils  acknowledged  by  every  one  in  the 
assembly — and  urged  that,  as  it  had  produced  more  injury 
than  benefit,  the  wiser  course  would  be  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  Greek  Church.^  A  majority  of  the  Council 
assented  to  the  principle,  but  shrank  from  the  bold  step 
of  adopting  it.  Eugenius  IV.  had  just  been  forced  to 
acknowledge  the  legitimacy  of  the  body  as  an  (Ecumenic 
council ;  the  strife  with  the  papacy  might  again  break  forth 
at  any  moment,  and  it  was  not  politic  to  venture  on 
innovations  too  audacious.  The  conservatives,  therefore, 
skilfully  eluded  the  question  by  postponing  it  to  a  more 
favourable  time,  and  the  postponement  was  fatal. 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  members  of  the  council. 
Cardinal  Nicholas  Tudeschi,  surnamed  Panormitanus,  whose 
pre-eminence  as  an  expounder  of  the  canon  law  won  for  him 
the  titles  of  **  Canonistarum  Princeps"  and  "Lucerna 
Juris,"  declares  that  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  not 
essential  to  ordination  or  enjoined  by  divine  law ;  and  he 
records  his  unhesitating  opinion  that  the  question  should 
be  left   to  the  option  of  the  individual — those  who  had 

1  Monstrelet,  Chronique,  ii.,  53,   127.— Martene,  Ampliss.  Collect.   VIII.  92.— 
Altmeyer,  Precurseurs  de  la  Eeforme,  I.  237. 

2  Zaccaria,  Nuova  Giustificaz.   pp.   121-2.— Milman,  Latin    Christ.     Book  xiri. 
chap.  12. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  27 

resolution  to  preserve  their  purity  being  the  most  worthy, 
while  those  who  had  not  would  be  spared  the  guilt  which 
disgraced  them/  So  iEneas  Sylvius,  who  as  Pius  II.  filled 
the  pontifical  throne  from  1458  to  1464,  and  who  knew 
by  experience  how  easy  it  was  to  yield  to  the  temptations 
of  the  flesh,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  marriage  had  been 
denied  to  priests  for  good  and  sufficient  reasons,  but  that 
still  stronger  ones  now  required  its  restoration.^  Indeed, 
when  arguing  before  the  Council  of  Basle  in  favour  of  the 
election  of  Amedeus  of  Savoy  to  the  papacy,  he  had  not 
scrupled  to  declare  that  a  married  priesthood  would  be  the 
salvation  of  many  who  were  damned  in  celibacy.^  And 
we  have  abeady  seen  that  Eugenius  IV.  in  1441,  and 
Alexander  VI.  in  1496,  granted  permission  of  marriage  to 
several  mihtary  Orders,  as  the  only  mode  of  removing  the 
scandalous  licence  prevaihng  among  them. 

This  question  of  the  power  of  the  Pope  to  dispense  with 
the  necessity  of  celibacy  seems  to  have  attracted  some 
attention  about  this  period.  In  1505,  GeofFroy  Boussard, 
afterwards  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris,  pubHshed 
a  tract  wherein  he  argued  that  priestly  continence  was 
simply  a  human  and  not  a  divine  ordinance,  and  that  the 
Pope  was  fully  empowered  to  relax  the  rule  in  special 
cases,  though  he  could  not  abolish  wholly  an  institution  of 
such  long  continuance  which  had  received  the  assent  of  so 
many  holy  fathers  and  general  councils.  At  the  same 
time,  one  of  his  arguments  in  favour  of  its  enforcement 
shows  how  little  respect  was  left  in  the  minds  of  all  thinking 
men  for  the  claims  of  the  Church  to  veneration.    He  quotes 

1  Not  having  the  works  of  Tudeschi  to  refer  to,  I  give  his  remarks  as  quoted  by 
Villadiego  (Fuero  Juzgo,  p.  177,  No.  85)  from  Gloss,  in  cap.  olim,  de  cleric,  conjug.— 
"Quod  deberet  ecclesia  facere  sicut  bonus  medicus,  ut  si  medicina,  experientia 
docente,  potius  officit  quam  prodit,  earn  toUat ;  sic  eorum  voluntati  relinqueretur,  ita 
ut  sacerdos  qui  abstinere  noluisset,  posset  uxorem  ducere,  cum  quotidie  illicit©  coitu 
maculentur." 

2  Sacerdotibus  magna  ratione  sublatas  nuptias,  majori  restituendas    videri. 
Platina  in  Vit.  Pii  II. 

3  Mnese  Sylvii  de  Concil.  Basil.  Lib.  II. 


28  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Bonaventura  to  the  effect  that  if  bishops  and  archbishops 
had  hcence  to  marry  they  would  rob  the  Church  of  all  its 
property,  and  none  would  be  left  for  the  poor,  for,  he  adds, 
"  since  already  they  seize  the  goods  of  the  Church  for  the 
benefit  of  distant  relatives,  what  would  they  not  do  if  they 
had  legitimate  children  of  their  own  ?  "  ^  , 

When  the  advantages  and  the  necessity  of  celibacy  thus 
were  doubted  by  the  highest  authorities  in  the  Church,  it 
is  no  wonder  if  those  who  were  disposed  to  question  the 
traditions  of  the  past  were  led  to  reject  it  altogether.  In 
1479  John  Ruchrath,  of  Oberwesel,  graduate  of  Tubingen, 
and  doctor  of  theology,  in  his  capacity  of  preacher  at 
Worms  openly  disseminated  doctrines  which  differed  in 
the  main  but  little  from  those  of  WicklifFe  and  Huss.  He 
denied  the  authority  of  popes,  councils,  and  the  fathers  of 
the  Church  to  regulate  matters  either  of  faith  or  discipline. 
The  Scripture  was  the  only  standard,  and  no  one  had  a 
right  to  interpret  it  for  his  brethren.  The  received  obser- 
vances of  religion,  prayers,  fasts,  indulgences,  were  all 
swept  away,  and  universal  liberty  of  conscience  proclaimed 
to  all.  Of  course,  sacerdotal  celibacy  shared  the  same  fate, 
as  a  superstitious  observance  contrived  by  papal  ingenuity 
in  opposition  to  evangelical  simplicity.^  Thus  his  intrepid 
logic  far  outstripped  the  views  of  his  predecessors,  and 
Luther  afterwards  acknowledged  the  similarity  between 
his  teachings  and  those  of  John  of  Oberwesel.  Yet  he  had 
not  the  spirit  of  martyrdom,  and  the  Inquisition  speedily 
forced  him  to  a  recantation,  which  was  of  little  avail,  for  he 
soon  after  perished  miserably  in  the  dungeon  into  which  he 
had  been  thrust.^ 

Still  more  remarkable  as  an  indication  of  the  growing 

1  De  Continentia  Sacerdotum,  Niirnb.  1510,  Prop.  6,  7. 

2  Trithem.   Chron.   Hirsaug.   ann.   1479.     D'Argentre,   Collect,   judic.  de  novis 
Erroribas,  I.,  II.,  291  sqq. 

3  Serrarii  Hist.  Ker.  Mogunt.  Lib.  I.  c,  34. 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  29 

spirit  of  independence  was  an  event  which  in  July  1485 
disturbed  the  stagnation  of  the  centre  of  theological  ortho- 
doxy— the  Sorbonne.  A  certain  Jean  Laillier,  priest  and 
licentiate  in  theology,  aspiring  to  the  doctorate,  prepared 
his  thesis  or  "  Sorbonique,"  in  which  he  broached  various 
propositions  savouring  strongly  of  extreme  LoUardry.  He 
denied  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and  indeed  reduced  the 
hierarchy  to  the  level  of  simple  priesthood ;  he  rejected 
confession,  absolution,  and  indulgences ;  he  refused  to 
acknowledge  the  authority  of  tradition  and  legends,  and 
insisted  that  the  fasts  enjoined  by  the  Church  had  no  claim 
to  observance.  Celibacy  was  not  likely  to  escape  so  auda- 
cious an  inquirer,  and  accordingly  among  his  postulates 
were  three,  declaring  that  a  priest  clandestinely  married 
required  no  penitence  ;  that  the  Eastern  clergy  committed 
no  sin  in  marrying,  nor  would  the  priests  of  the  Western 
Church  if  they  were  to  follow  that  example ;  and  that 
celibacy  originated  in  1073,  in  the  decretals  of  Gregory  VII., 
whose  power  to  introduce  the  rule  he  more  than  questioned. 
The  Sorbonne,  as  might  be  anticipated,  refused  the  doc- 
torate to  so  rank  a  heretic,  and  Laillier  had  the  boldness 
not  only  to  preach  his  doctrines  publicly,  but  even  to 
appeal  to  the  Parlement  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  his 
admission  to  the  Sorbonne.  The  Parlement  referred  the 
matter  to  the  Bishop  of  Paris  and  to  the  Inquisitor.  A 
long  controversy  followed,  and  it  required  the  interposition 
of  Innocent  VIII.  before  Laillier  could  be  punished  and 
forced  to  recant.^  In  Poland,  too,  there  were  symptoms 
of  similar  revolt  against  the  established  ordinances  of  the 
Church,  as  shown  in  a  book  published  at  Cracow  in  1504, 
"  De  Matrimonia  Sacerdotum."^ 

The  corruption  of  the  Church  establishment,  in  fact,  had 

1  D'Argentre,  I.,  II.,  309  sqq. 

2  Krasinski,  Reformation  in  Poland,  I.  110. 


30  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

reached  a  point  which  the  dawning  enlightenment  of  the 
age  could  not  much  longer  endure.  The  power  which  had 
been  entrusted  to  it,  when  it  was  the  only  representative  of 
culture  and  progress,  had  been  devoted  to  selfish  purposes, 
and  had  become  the  instrument  of  oppression  in  all  the 
details  of  daily  life.  The  immunity  which  had  been  ser- 
viceable through  centuries  of  anarchy  had  become  the 
shield  of  vices.  The  wealth  so  freely  lavished  upon  it  by 
the  veneration  of  Christendom  was  wasted  in  excesses. 
All  efforts  at  reformation  from  within  had  failed  ;  all 
attempts  at  reformation  from  without  had  been  success- 
fully crushed  and  sternly  punished.  Intoxicated  with 
centuries  of  domination,  the  muttered  thunders  of  growing 
popular  discontent  were  unheeded,  while  its  corruptions 
were  displayed  before  the  people  with  more  careless  cyni- 
cism. There  appeared  to  be  no  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
majority  of  the  clergy  to  make  even  a  pretence  of  the 
virtue  and  piety  on  which  were  based  their  claims  for 
reverence,  while  the  laity  were  daily  growing  less  reverent, 
were  rising  in  intelligence,  and  were  becoming  more 
inclined  to  question  where  their  fathers  had  been  content 
to  believe.  Such  a  complication  could  have  but  one 
result. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY 

The  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century  mtnessed  an  ominous 
breaking  down  of  the  landmarks  of  thought.  The  revival 
of  letters,  which  was  fast  rendering  learning  the  privilege 
of  all  men  in  place  of  the  special  province  of  the  legal  and 
clerical  professions ;  the  discovery  of  America,  which 
destroyed  reverence  for  primeval  tradition,  and  accustomed 
men's  minds  to  the  idea  that  startling  novelties  might  yet 
be  truths  ;  the  invention  of  printing,  which  placed  within 
the  reach  of  all  inquirers  who  had  a  tincture  of  education 
the  sacred  writings  for  investigation  and  interpretation,  and 
enabled  the  thinker  and  the  innovator  at  once  to  command 
an  audience  and  disseminate  his  views  in  remote  regions  ; 
the  European  wars,  commencing  with  the  Neapolitan  con- 
quest of  Charles  VIII.,  which  brought  the  nations  into 
closer  contact  with  each  other,  and  carried  the  seeds  of 
culture,  civilisation,  and  unbelief  from  Italy  to  the  farthest 
Thule  ;  all  these  causes,  with  others  less  notable,  had  been 
silently  but  effectually  wearing  out  the  remnants  of  that 
pious  and  unquestioning  veneration  which  for  ages  had  lain 
like  a  spell  on  the  human  mind. 

In  this  bustling  movement  of  politics  and  commerce, 
arts  and  arms,  science  and  letters,  rehgion  could  not  expect 
to  escape  the  spirit  of  universal  inquiry.  Even  before 
opinion  had  advanced  far  enough  to  justify  examination 
into  doctrinal  points  and  dogmas,  there  was  a  general 
readiness  to  regard  the  shortcomings  of  sacerdotalism,  in 
the  administration  of  its  sacred  trust,  with  a  freedom  of 


32  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

criticism  which  could  not  long  fail  to  destroy  the  respect 
for  claims  of  irrefragable  authority.  The  disposition  to 
criticise  the  abuses  of  the  ecclesiastical  system,  to  note  its 
shortcomings,  and  to  apply  remedial  measures  was  general, 
and  savoured  little  of  the  respect  which  the  Church  had  for 
so  many  centuries  inculcated  as  one  of  the  first  of  Christian 
duties.  Its  past  services  were  forgotten  in  present  wrongs. 
Its  pretensions  had  at  one  time  enabled  it  to  be  the  pro- 
tector of  the  feeble  and  the  sole  defence  of  the  helpless, 
but  that  time  had  passed.  Settled  institutions  were  fast 
replacing  anarchy  throughout  Europe,  and  its  all-pervading 
authority  would  no  longer  have  been  in  place,  even  if  exer- 
cised for  the  common  benefit.  When  it  was  notorious, 
however,  that  the  powers  and  immunities  claimed  by  the 
Church  were  largely  employed  for  evil  rather  than  for 
good,  their  anachronism  became  too  palpable,  and  their 
destruction  was  only  a  question  of  time. 

Signs  of  the  coming  storm  were  not  wanting.  In  1510 
a  series  of  complaints  against  the  tyranny  and  extortion 
of  Rome  was  solemnly  presented  to  the  Emperor.  The 
German  churches,  it  was  asserted,  were  confided  by  the 
successors  of  St.  Peter  to  the  care  of  those  who  were  better 
fitted  to  be  keepers  of  mules  than  pastors  of  men,  and  the 
Pope  was  significantly  told  that  he  should  act  more  tenderly 
and  kindly  to  his  children  of  Teutonic  race,  lest  there 
might  arise  a  persecution  against  the  priesthood,  or  a 
general  defection  from  the  Holy  See,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Hussites.^  The  Emperor  was  warned,  in  his  efforts  to 
obtain  the  desired  reform,  not  to  incur  the  censures  and 
enmity  of  the  Pope,  in  terms  which  show  that  only  the 
political  effects  of  excommunication  were  dreaded,  and 
that  its  spiritual  thunders  had  lost  their  terrors.     He  was 

1  Gravamina  German.  Nationis,  No.  vii. — Eemed.  contra  Gravamina  (Freher.  et 
Struv.  II.  677-8). 

In  the  previous  century  some  remonstrances  against  grievances  had  been  uttered, 
but  in  a  very  different  tone  from  this. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        33 

further  cautioned  against  the  prelates  in  general,  and  the 
mendicant  friars  in  particular,  in  a  manner  denoting  how 
Httle  reverence  was  left  for  them  in  the  popular  mind,  and 
how  thoroughly  the  whole  ecclesiastical  system  had  become 
a  burden  and  reproach,  and  no  longer  an  integral  part  of 
every  man's  life  and  the  great  motive  power  of  Christen- 
dom.^ 

It  was  evident  that  the  age  was  rapidly  outstripping 
the  Church,  and  that  the  latter,  to  maintain  its  influence 
and  position,  must  conform  to  the  necessities  of  progress 
and  enlightenment.  On  previous  occasions  it  had  done  so, 
and  had,  with  marvellous  tact  and  readiness,  adapted  itself 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  in  the  long  series  of 
vicissitudes  which  had  ended  by  placing  it  supreme  over 
•  Europe.  But  centuries  of  almost  uninterrupted  prosperity 
had  hardened  it.  The  corruption  which  attends  upon 
wealth  had  rendered  wealth  a  necessity,  and  that  wealth 
could  only  be  had  by  perpetuating  and  increasing  the 
abuses  which  caused  ominous  murmurs  of  discontent  in 
those  nations  not  hardy  enough  to  set  limits  to  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  See.  The  Church  had  lost  its 
suppleness,  and  was  immovable.  A  reform  such  as  was 
demanded,  while  increasing  its  influence  over  the  souls 
of  men,  would  have  deprived  it  of  control  over  their 
purses  ;  reform  meant  poverty.  The  sumpter-mule  loaded 
with  gold,  wrung  from  the  humble  pittance  of  the  West- 
phalian  peasant,  under  pretext  of  prosecuting  the  war 
against  the  infidel,  would  no  longer  cross  the  Alps  to 
stimulate  with  its  treasure  the  mighty  genius  of  Michael 
Angelo,  or  the  fascinating  tenderness  of  Raphael ;  to 
provide  princely  revenues  for  the  bastards  of  a  pope,  or 
to  pay  mercenaries  who  were  to  win  them  cities  and 
lordships ;    to    fill   the   antechamber    of  a  cardinal   with 

1  Avisamenta  ad  CtBsar.  Ma  jest.  (Ibid.  p.  680). 
VOL.  II.  C 


34  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

parasites,  and  to  deck  his  mistresses  with  the  silks  and 
jewels  of  Ind  ;  to  feed  needy  men  of  letters  and  scurri- 
lous poets  ;  to  soothe  the  itching  palms  of  the  Rota, 
and  to  enable  all  Rome  to  live  on  the  tribute  so  cun- 
ningly exacted  of  the  barbarian/  The  wretched  ending 
of  the  Council  of  Basle  rendered  any  internal  reformation 
impossible  which  did  not  derive  its  initiative  and  inspira- 
tion from  Rome.  In  Rome,  it  would  have  required  the 
energy  of  Hildebrand,  the  stern  self-reliance  of  Innocent, 
the  unworldly  asceticism  of  Celestin  combined,  even  to 
essay  a  reform  which  threatened  destruction  so  complete 
to  all  the  interests  accumulated  by  sacerdotalism  around 
the  Eternal  City.  Leo  X.  was  neither  Hildebrand,  nor 
Innocent,  nor  Celestin.  With  his  voluptuous  nature, 
elegant  culture,  and  easy  temper,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
he  failed  to  read  aright  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  that 
he  did  not  even  recognise  the  necessity  which  should 
impose  upon  him  a  task  so  utterly  beyond  his  powers. 
The   fifth  Council   of  Lateran   had   no    practical   result. 

1  When  Diether  was  elected  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  in  1459 ,  his  envoys  sent  to 
obtain  his  confirmation  from  Pius  II.  were  stupefied  with  a  demand  for  20,506  florins 
— more  than  double  the  amount  of  annates  previously  assessed  on  the  see.  He 
refused  to  yield  to  the  demand,  but  the  Roman  bankers  had  already  advanced  to  the 
members  of  the  Curia  their  shares  of  the  spoils,  and  on  his  persistent  refusal  he  was 
deposed  by  the  Pope,  and  Adolph  of  Nassau  appointed  in  his  place,  leading  to  a  bloody 
war  and  the  devastation  of  city  and  territory.— Appell.  Dom.  Dytheri  (Senckenberg, 
Selecta  Juris  T.  IV.  p.  393). — Cf.  Helwich  de  Dissidio  Moguntino  (Rer.  Moguntiac. 
Script.  T.  II.).  This  is  probably  the  fraud  alluded  to  by  the  Diet  of  1510,  where  it 
was  complained  that  the  annates  of  the  see  of  Mainz  were  raised  from  10,000  florins 
to  25,000  ;  and  this  latter  sum  was  exacted  seven  times  in  one  generation,  resulting 
in  taxation  on  the  peasantry  so  severe  that  an  insurrection  against  the  clergy  was 
threatened. — Remed.  contra  Gravam.  (Freher.  et  Struv.  II.  678.) 

In  the  complaint  made  to  Adrian  VI.,  in  1523,  by  the  Diet  of  Niirnberg,  it  is 
asserted  that  three  generals  of  the  mendicant  Orders  at  Rome  had  purchased  the 
cardinalate  with  gold  wrung  from  Germany. — Gravam,  Nationis  German,  cap.lxxiii. 
— a/).  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  II.  203. 

That  this  estimate  of  the  papal  Curia  was  shared  by  the  orthodox  is  shown  in  the 
story  told  of  Pierre  Danes,  Bishop  of  Vaur,  who  in  154,5  was  sent  as  ambassador  by 
Francis  I.  to  the  Council  of  Trent.  In  debate  a  French  theologian  was  inveighing 
against  the  corruptions  of  the  Rota,  when  an  Italian  ecclesiastic  sneeringly  cried 
out,  "Gallus  cantat."  Danes  promptly  rejoined,  "  Utinam  illo  gallicinio  Petrus 
ad  resipiscentiam  et  fletum  excitetur,"— ie  piat,  Monument,  Concil.  Trident. 
VII.  224. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        35 

Blindly  he  plunged  on  :  money  must  be  had  at  any  cost, 
until  the  methods  employed  in  marketing  the  St.  Peter's 
indulgence  attracted  the  attention  of  Luther,  and  Teutonic 
insubordination  burst  forth  at  the  sound  of  his  voice.  ^ 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  credit  Luther  with  the  Re- 
formation. His  bold  spirit  and  masculine  character  gave 
to  him  the  front  place,  and  drew  around  him  the  less 
daring  minds  who  were  glad  to  have  a  leader  to  whom  to 
refer  their  doubts,  and  on  whom  their  responsibiUty  might 
partly  rest ;  yet  Luther  was  but  the  exponent  of  a  public 
sentiment  which  had  long  been  gaining  strength,  and 
which  in  any  case  would  not  have  lacked  expression.  In 
that  great  movement  of  the  human  mind  he  was  not 
the  cause,  but  the  instrument.  Had  his  great  opponent 
Erasmus  enjoyed  the  physical  vigour  and  practical  bold- 
ness of  Luther,  he  would  have  been  handed  down  as  the 
heresiarch  of  the  sixteenth  century.  He  too  had  borne 
his  full  share  in  preparing  the  minds  of  men  for  what  was  to 
come.  The  whole  structure  of  sacerdotalism  felt  the  blows 
of  his  irreverential  spirit,  which  boldly  declared  that  the 
Scriptures  alone  contained  what  was  necessary  to  salvation.^ 
Theological  subtleties  and  priestly  observances  were  alike 
useless  or  worse  than  useless.  For  the  living,  it  was  idle 
to  attend  Mass  ;  for  the  dead,  it  was  folly  to  look  to  such 
a  means  for  extrication  from  purgatory.^  The  confessional 
was  to  be  visited  only  as  a  formal  prerequisite  to  par- 
taking of  the  Eucharist ;  *  pilgrimages  and  the  veneration 

1  The  briefs  of  Leo  X.  from  March  1513  to  October  1515,  calendared  by  Cardinal 
Hergenrother  (Leonis  X.  Kegestu,  Friburgi,  1884-1891)  throw  abundant  light  on  the 
worldliness  and  venality  of  the  papal  court  of  the  period,  the  reckless  prodigality  of 
Leo,  and  the  ruinous  financial  expedients  to  which  he  resorted.  Not  the  least  of  his 
burdens  was  the  gigantic  enterprise  of  rebuilding  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  inherited 
from  Julius  II. 

2  Erasmi  Colloq.  Confabulatio  Pia. 

3  Ibid.  See  also  the  Encomium  Moriae. — "Nam  quid  dicam  de  iis  qui  sibi  fictis 
scelerum  condonationibus  suavissime  blandiuntur,  ac  purgatorii  spatia  veluti 
clepsydris  metiuntur,  secula,  annos,  menses,  dies,  horas,  tanquam  e  tabula  aatbe- 
matica  citra  ullum  errorem  dimentientes  ? " 

4  Confabulatio  Pia. 


36  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

of  relics  were  ridiculed  with  a  reckless  freedom  which 
showed  how  shaken  was  the  reverence  of  the  past.^ 
Nothing,  indeed,  can  give  us  a  more  thorough  conviction 
of  the  readiness  of  the  public  to  welcome  a  radical  change 
than  the  wealth  of  indignant  bitterness  which  Erasmus, 
himself  a  canon  regular  and  a  priest,  heaps  upon  all  orders 
of  the  Church,  and  the  immense  applause  which  everywhere 
greeted  his  attacks.  His  sarcastic  humour,  his  biting 
satire,  his  exquisite  ridicule,  nowhere  find  a  more  congenial 
subject  than  the  vices  of  the  monks,  the  priests,  the  pre- 
lates, the  cardinals,  and  even  of  the  Pope  himself,  until 
even  Luther,  as  late  as  1517,  feels  constrained  to  deplore 
that  the  evils  which  afflicted  the  Church  should  be  thus 
exposed  to  derision.^  It  affords  a  curious  illustration  of 
the  times  to  read  those  writings  which  a  century  earlier 
might  have  led  him  to  share  the  fate  of  John  Huss  and 
Jerome  of  Prague,  and  to  reflect  that  he  was  not  only  the 
admiration  of  both  the  learned  and  the  vulgar  of  Europe, 
but  also  the  petted  protege  of  king  and  kaiser,  the  corre- 
spondent of  popes,  and  finaUy  the  champion  of  the  system 
which  he  had  so  ruthlessly  reviled,  and  which  he  never 
ceased  to  deplore.^     The  extraordinary  favour  with  which 

1  Speaking  of  tbe  Virgin's  milk  and  the  countless  relics  of  the  cross  everywhere 
exposed  to  the  adoration  of  the  pious,  he  exclaims,  "0  matrem  filio  simillimam  !  ille 
nobis  tantum  sanguinis  reliquit  in  terris  ;  hsec  tantum  lactis  quantum  vix  credibile 
est  esse  posse  uni  mulieri  uniparae,  etiamsi  nihil  bibisset  infans  .  .  .  Idem  caussantur 
de  cruce  Domini,  quae  privatim  ac  publice  tot  locis  ostenditur,  ut  si  fragmenta  con- 
ferantur  in  unum,  navis  onerariee  justum  onus  videri  possint ;  et  tamen  totam  crucem 
suam  bajulavit  Dominus  "—to  which  he  makes  a  pious  interloculor  reply,  "Novum 
fortasse  dici  possit ;  mirum  nequaquam,  quum  Dominus,  qui  haec  auget  pro  suo  arbi- 
trio,  sit  omnipotens."— Colloq.  Peregrinat.  Religionis. 

2  Supplement.  Episk.  M.  Lutheri,  No.  II.  (Halae,  1703.) 

3  The  popular  view  of  the  priesthood  is  well  summed  up  by  Erasmus  in  the 
following  dialogue  :  "  Cocles,  Cur  mavis  sacerdotium  quam  uxorem  ?— Pamphagus, 
Quia  mihi  placet  otium.  Arridet  Epicurea  vita. — Co.  At  mea  sententia  suavius 
vivunt,  quibus  est  lepidapuella  domi,  quam  complectantur,  quoties  libet.— Pam.  Sed 
adde ,  nonnunquam  quum  non  libet.  Amo  voluptatem  perpetuam.  Qui  ducit  uxorem, 
uno  mense  felix  est  :  cui  contingit  optimum  sacerdotium,  in  omnem  usque  vitam 
fruitur  gaudio.— Co.  Sed  tristis  est  solitudo,  adeo  ut  nee  Adam  suaviter  victurus 
fuerit  in  Paradiso  nisi  deus  illi  adjunxisset  Evam.— Pam.  Non  deerit  Eva  cui  sit 
opulentum  sacerdotium,"  &c.—Erasmi  Colloq.  de  Captandis  Sacerdotiis. 

It  is,  however,  perhaps  in  the  "  Encomium  Moriae  "  that  he  gives  fullest  rein  to 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        37 

his  works  were  received  by  all  classes  shows  how  fully  he 
was  justified  in  the  indignation  which  he  so  unsparingly 
lavished  on  clerical  abuses,  and  how  eagerly  the  public 
appreciated  one  who  could  so  well  express  that  which  was 
felt  by  all.  Equally  significant  was  the  popularity  of  the 
"  Epistolag  Obscurorum  Virorum,"  in  which  the  learned 
wits  of  the  new  school  poured  forth  upon  the  clergy  a 
broad  and  homely  ridicule  which  exactly  suited  the  taste 
of  the  age  ;  ^  while  Cornelius  Agrippa  more  than  rivalled 
Erasmus  in  the  wealth  of  vigorous  denunciation  with 
which  he  lashed  the  vices  of  all  the  orders  of  ecclesiastics, 
from  the  Pope  to  the  beguine.^ 

Not  less  indicative  of  the  dangerous  state  of  opinion 
was  an  address  delivered  in  the  diet  held  at  Augsburg  in 

his  bitter  satire.  His  own  sad  experience  of  conventual  life  gave  him  special  oppor- 
tunity of  declaiming  against  the  monks  "  qui  se  vulgo  religiosos  ac  monachos  appel- 
lant, utroque  falsissimo  cognomine,  quum  et  bona  pars  istorum  longissime  absit  a 
religione,  et  nulli  magis  omnibus  locis  sint  obvii."  Their  habit,  their  observances, 
their  discipline,  their  ignorance,  idleness,  vices,  are  recounted  at  great  length  and 
with  the  most  stinging  ridicule,  and  he  makes  Folly  dismiss  them  with  the  con- 
temptuous valediction,  "  Verum  ego  istos  histriones,  tarn  ingratos  beneficiorum 
meorum  dissimulatores  quam  improbos  simulatores  pietatis  libenter  relinquo."  The 
secular  priesthood,  the  bishops,  and  even  the  Pope  himself  are  treated  with  little 
more  respect,  and  every  class  of  the  ecclesiastical  body  is  stigmatised  as  endeavour- 
ing to  thrust  upon  others  the  care  of  the  flock  and  industrious  only  in  shearing  the 
sheep. 

The  '*  Encomium  Morise  "  had  an  immediate  and  immense  success.  Numberless 
editions  were  required  to  supply  the  avidity  of  the  learned,  and  it  was  immediately 
translated  into  almost  every  language  of  Europe  for  the  benefit  of  the  unlearned.  It 
appeared  in  1509  ;  the  Colloquies  in  1516. — When  these  works  had  produced  their 
result,  their  dangerous  tendencies  were  discovered,  and  they  enjoyed  the  honour  of 
being  included  in  the  first  Index  Expurgatorius  (App.  Concil.  Trident.).  Cardinal 
CarafEa,  indeed,  in  1538,  had  urged  upon  Paul  III.  the  propriety  of  excluding  the 
Colloquies  from  use  in  schools  as  a  text-book  for  students. — Concil.  de  Emend. 
Eccles.  (LePlat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  II,  602.)  ' 

1  The  "  Epistolse  Obscurorum  Virorum"  was  certainly  published  before  1516,  pro- 
bably in  1515  (Ebert,  Bibliog.  Diet.  s.  v.). — It  is  equally  severe  upon  the  monks — 
"Tunc  ille  dixit :  ego  distinguo  de  monachis,  quia  accipiuntur  tribusmodis.  Prime, 
pro  Sanctis  et  utilibus,  sed  illi  sunt  in  coelo.  Secundo,  pro  nee  utilibus  nee  in- 
utilibus,  et  illi  sunt  picti  in  ecclesia.  Tertio,  modo  pro  illis  qui  adhuc  vivunt,  et  illi 
multis  nocent,  etiam  non  sunt  sancti,  quia  ita  superbi  sunt  sicut  unus  saecularium. 
Et  ita  libenter  habent  pecunias  et  pulchras  mulieres,"  &c.  And  again,  "  Ubi  enim 
diabolus  pervenire  vel  aliquid  efficere  non  potest,  ibi  semper  mittit  unam  malam 
an ti quam  vetulam  vel  unum  monachum." 

2  De  Vanitate  Scientiarum  cap.  Ixi.,  Ixii.,  Ixiv. 


38  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

1518,  when  the  legates  of  Leo  X.  appealed  to  Germany 
for  a  tithe  to  assist  in  carrying  on  the  war  against  the 
Turk.  The  orator  who  replied  to  them  did  not  restrain 
his  indignation  at  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  Church, 
which  he  attributed  solely  to  the  worldly  ambition  of  the 
popes.  Since  they  had  united  temporal  with  spiritual 
dominion — or,  rather,  since  they  had  allowed  temporal 
interests  to  divert  them  wholly  from  their  spiritual  duties 
— all  had  gone  amiss.  Christendom  was  despoiled  from 
without,  and  filled  with  tumult  within.  Religion  was 
openly  contemned  ;  Christ  was  daily  bought  and  sold ; 
the  sheep  were  shorn,  and  the  pastor  took  no  care  of  them. 
He  did  not  even  hesitate  to  charge,  with  emphasis  and  at 
much  detail,  that  the  money  extorted  from  Germany 
under  pious  pretexts  was  squandered  in  Italy  on  the 
private  quarrels  and  for  the  aggrandisement  of  the  papal 
houses  and  those  of  the  members  of  the  sacred  college.^ 
All  other  nations  were  protected  from  papal  rapacity  and 
tyranny  by  formal  agreements.  Germany  alone  was  sur- 
rendered defenceless,  and  not  only  were  her  bishops  plun- 
dered, but  even  the  smallest  benefice  conld  not  be  confirmed 
without  the  recipient  running  the  gauntlet  of  a  horde  of 
officials  whose  exactions  forced  him  to  sell  the  very  furni- 
ture of  his  church.  As  the  rules  of  law  and  the  dictates  of 
justice  were  equally  disregarded,  the  popular  sentiment  was 
becoming  openly  hostile  to  the  Church.^  A  state  of  feeling 
which  dictated  and  permitted  such  a  declaration  from  the 
supreme  representative  body  of  the  empire,  when  brought 
into  colhsion  with  the  pretensions  of  the  Holy  See,  now 
more  exaggerated  than  ever,  could  have  but  one  result — 
revolution. 

With  all  this  licence,  Germany  was  still,  by  the  force  of 
circumstances,  less  independent  of  the  papacy  than  any 

1  Orat.  in  Comit.  Augustan,  (Freher.  et  Struv.  II.  702.) 

2  Bartholini  Comment,  de  Comit.  Augustens.  ann.  1518   (Senckenberg.   Selecta 
Juris  T.  IV.  pp.  669-70). 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        39 

other  Tramontane  power.  The  fractioning  of  the  empire 
since  the  death  of  Barbarossa,  carefully  stimulated  by  papal 
intrigues,  had  deprived  it  of  unity  and  prevented  the  con- 
solidation of  a  power  capable  of  resisting  the  encroachments 
of  the  Curia,  which  sucked  the  life-blood  of  both  priest  and 
peasant,  and  rendered  the  very  name  of  Rome  hateful  to 
all,  but  especially  to  Teutonic  ecclesiastics/  What  was 
going  on  elsewhere  in  Europe  may  be  guessed  from  the 
humiliating  conditions  exacted  in  1517  of  Silvester  Darius, 
the  papal  collector,  on  his  assuming  the  functions  of  his 
important  office  in  England.  He  bound  himself  by  oath 
not  to  execute  any  letters  or  mandates  of  the  Pope  injurious 
to  the  King,  the  kingdom,  or  the  laws  ;  not  to  transmit 
from  England  to  Rome,  without  a  special  royal  licence, 
any  gold,  or  silver,  or  bills  of  exchange ;  not  to  leave  the 
.  kingdom  himself  without  a  special  licence  under  the  great 
seal ;  with  other  less  notable  restrictions,  the  practical  effect 
of  all  being  to  place  him  and  his  duties  wholly  under  the 
control  of  the  King.^  The  position  of  England  had  changed 
since  the  days  of  Innocent  and  John.  Had  the  dissensions 
of  Germany  permitted  equal  progress,  Luther  might  per- 
haps have  only  been  known  as  an  obscure  but  learned 
orthodox  doctor,  and  the  inevitable  revolt  of  half  of  Chris- 
tendom have  been  postponed  for  a  century. 

It  is  not  my  province  to  follow  in  detail  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  Reformation,  but  only  to  indicate  briefly  its  relations 
with  sacerdotal  asceticism.  Luther  at  first,  like  WicklifFe 
and  Huss,  paid  no  attention  to  the  subject.  In  fact,  when 
on  the  31st  of  October,  1517,  he  nailed  on  the  church  door 
of  Wittenberg  his  celebrated  ninety-five  propositions, 
nothing  was  further  from  his  expectations  than  to  create  a 

1  See  the  dispatches  of  the  nuncio  Aleander  and  the  letter  of  Archbishop  Albert 
of  Mainz  to  Pope  Leo,  in  Balan,  Monument.  Reform.  Lutherean,  pp.  31-2,  58,  71,  98, 
165,  268-9. 

2  Rymer,  Foedora  XIII.  586-7. 


40  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

heresy,  a  schism,  or  even  a  general  reform  in  the  Church. 
He  had  simply  in  view  to  vindicate  his  ideas  on  the  subject 
of  justification,  derived  from  St.  Augustin,  against  the 
Thomist  doctrines  which  had  been  exaggerated  into  the 
monstrous  abuses  of  Tetzel  and  his  fellows.^  In  the 
general  movement  of  the  human  mind  at  that  period  so 
much  had  been  said  that  was  inimical  to  the  received  prac- 
tices of  the  Church,  without  calling  forth  the  thunders  of 
Rome,  that  men  seemed  to  think  the  day  of  toleration 
had  at  last  come.  The  hierarchy  sat  serenely  upon  their 
thrones,  and  in  the  confidence  of  unassailable  power  ap- 
peared willing  to  allow  any  freedom  of  speculation  which 
did  not  assail  their  temporal  privileges.  Yet  amid  the 
general  agitation  and  opposition  to  Rome  which  pervaded 
society,  it  was  impossible  for  a  bold  and  self-reliant  spirit 
such  as  Luther's  not  to  advance  step  by  step  in  a  career  of 
which  the  ultimate  goal  was  as  little  foreseen  by  himself 
as  by  others.  Still  his  progress  was  wonderfully  slow. 
Even  in  1519  he  still  considered  himself  within  the  pale  of 
the  Church :  in  a  letter  to  Leo  X.  he  protested  before  God 
that  he  did  not  seek  in  any  way  to  attack  the  power  of 
either  the  Pope  or  the  Roman  Church,  which  he  held  to 
be  supreme  over  all  in  heaven  and  earth,  save  Jesus  Christ 
alone  ;  ^  and  in  the  same  year,  in  a  sermon  on  matrimony, 
he  alluded  not  unfavourably  to  the  life  of  virginity.^ 
Events  soon  after  forced  him  to  further  and  more  dan- 
gerous innovations,  yet  when  Leo  X.,  in  June  1520,  issued 
his  celebrated  bull,  "  Exsurge  Domine,"  to  crush  the  rising 

1  Even  in  this  Luther  was  by  no  means  the  first.  Erasmus  had  exposed  the 
demoralisation  of  the  system  with  fully  as  much  fervour  in  the  "Encomium  Morifc." 
— "Hie  mihi  puta  negotiator  aliquis,  aut  miles,  aut  judex,  abjecto  ex  tot  rapinis 
unico  nummulo,  universam  vitse  Lernam  semel  expurgatam  putat,  totque  perjuria, 
tot  libidines,  tot  ebrietates,  tot  rixas,  tot  caedes,  tot  imposturas,  tot  perfidias,  tot 
proditiones  existimat  velut  ex  pacto  redimi,  et  ita  redimi  ut  jam  liceat  ad  novum 
scelerum  orbem  de  integro  reverti." — And  in  the  "  EpistolfE  Obscurorum  Virorum" 
the  falseness  of  its  promises  was  unflinchingly  asserted. 

2  Lutheri  Opp.  T.  I.  fol.  210b  (Jenje,  1561). 
a  Ibid.  T.  I.  fol.  335a. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GER^NIANY        41 

heresy,  in  the  forty-one  errors  enumerated  as  taught  by 
Luther  there  is  no  allusion  to  any  doctrine  specially 
inimical  to  ascetic  celibacy/  At  almost  the  same  moment, 
however,  Luther,  in  his  address  to  the  Christian  nobles  of 
Germany,  proposed  that  through  the  intervention  of  a 
general  council  the  privilege  of  marriage  should  be  granted 
to  parish  priests,  and  this  was  speedily  followed  by  the 
suggestion  that  vows  of  chastity  taken  before  the  age  of 
eighteen  should  be  invalid. - 

The  papal  condemnation,  followed  as  it  was  by  the 
public  burning  of  his  writings,  aroused  Luther  to  a  more 
active  and  aggressive  hostility  than  he  had  pre\'iously 
manifested.  In  liis  book  "  De  Captivitate  Babylonica 
Ecclesiie  "  he  attacked  the  sacrament  of  ordination,  denied 
that  it  separated  the  priest  from  Ms  fellows,  and  ridiculed 
the  rule  concerninor  dio^ami,  which  excluded  from  the 
priesthood  a  man  who  had  been  the  husband  of  any  but  a 
\'irgin,  while  another  who  had  polluted  himself  ^\dth  six 
hundred  concubines  was  ehgible  to  the  episcopate  or 
papacy.^  Finally,  on  10th  December  1530.  he  proclaimed 
war  to  the  knife  by  burning  at  Wittenberg  the  books  of  the 
canon  law,  andjustifpngliis  act  by  a  manifesto  recapitulat- 
ing the  damnable  doctrines  contamed  in  them.  Among 
these  he  enumerates  the  proliibition  of  sacerdotal  marriage 
as  the  origin  and  cause  of  excessive  ^'ice  and  scandal.^  As 
he  said  himself,  hitherto  he  had  only  been  plapng  at  con- 
troversy -s^dth  the  Pope,  but  tliis  was  the  beginning  of 
serious  work.^  Soon  after  tliis,  in  a  controversy  ^dth 
Ambroffio  Catarino,  he  stigmatised  the  rule  of  cehbacy  as 
angehcal  in  appearance,  but  de^'ilish  in  reahty,  and 
invented  by  Satan  as  a  fertile  source  of  sin  and  perdition.^ 

1  Mag.  Bull.  Roman.  Ed.  1692,  I.  614. 

2  Herzog,  Abriss,  T.  III.  p.  34.— Lutheri  0pp.  T.  I.  fol.  359b. 

3  De  Captiv.  Babylon.  Eccles.  (Lutheri  Opp.  II.  fol.  2S3a.) 

*  Artie,  et  Errores  Libb.  Jur.  Canon.  Xo.  IS  (Lutheri  Opp.  XL  fol.  318a). 

6  Ibid.  fol.  319b. 

«  Ibid.  fol.  362a,  874a. 


42  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

In  the  mighty  movement  which  was  agitating  men's 
minds,  Luther  had  been  anticipated  in  this.     As  early  as 
1518,  a  monk  of  Dantzic  named  James  Knade  abandoned 
his   order,   married,  and  pubhcly  preached  resistance  to 
Rome.     It  is  evident  that  in  this  he  had  the  support  of 
the  people,  for  though  he  was  imprisoned  and  tried  by  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities,  the  only  punishment  inflicted  on 
him  was  banishment.^     In  the  multitude  of  other  questions 
more  interesting  to  the  immediate  disputants  this  point  of 
discipline  seems  to  have  attracted  but  little  attention  until 
1521,  when  during    Luther's   enforced    seclusion   in  the 
Wartburg,  Bartholomew  Bernhardi,  pastor  of  Kammerich, 
near  Wittenberg,  put  the  heresiarch's  views  into  action 
in  the  most  practical  way  by  obtaining  the  consent  of  his 
parish  and  celebrating  his  nuptials  with  all  due  solemnity. 
Albert,  Archbishop  of  Mainz  and  Magdeburg,  addressed 
to  Frederic,  Elector  of  Saxony,  a  demand  for  the  rendition 
of  the  culprit,  which  that  prudent  patron  of  the  Reforma- 
tion   skilfully  eluded,  and  Bernhardi   published  a   short 
defence  or  apology  in  which  he  denounced  the  rule  of 
celibacy  as  a  "  frivolam  traditiunculam."     He  argued  the 
matter,  quoting  the  texts  which  since  his  time  have  been 
generally  employed  in  support  of  sacerdotal  marriage :  he 
referred   to   Peter   and  Philip,  Spiridion  of  Cyprus,  and 
Hilary  of  Poitiers,  as  examples  of  married  bishops  ;  quoted 
the  story  of  Paphnutius,  and  rehed  on  the  authority  of  the 
Greek  Church.     This  apparently  did  not  satisfy  the  arch- 
bishop,  for   Bernhardi  felt  obliged  to  address  a   second 
apology  to  Frederic  of  Saxony,  to  whom  he  appealed  for 
protection    against    the   displeasure   of    his   ecclesiastical 
superiors.^     In  spite  of  molestation,  he  continued  in  the 
exercise  of  his  priestly  functions  until  death.     Less  fortu- 
nate were  his  immediate  imitators.     A  priest  of  Mansfield 

1  Krasinski,  op.  cit.  I.  112-3. 

2  Lutheri  0pp.  Jenae,  1581,  T.  II.  fol.  438,  440. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        43 

who  took  to  himself  a  wife  was  thrown  into  prison  at  Halle 
by  Albert  of  Mainz,  and  Jacob  Siedeler,  pastor  of  Glas- 
hiitten,  in  Misnia,  who  was  guilty  of  the  same  crime, 
perished  miserably  in  the  dungeon  of  Stolpen,  to  which  he 
was  committed  by  Duke  George  of  Saxony.^ 

The  enthusiastic  Carlostadt,  relieved  for  the  time  from 
the  restraint  of  Luther's  cooler  wisdom,  threw  himself  with 
zeal  into  this  new  movement  of  reform,  and  lost  no  time 
in  justifying  it  by  a  treatise  in  which  he  argued  strenuously 
in  favour  of  priestly  marriage,  and  energetically  denounced 
the  monastic  vows  as  idle  and  vain.  Luther,  however,  in 
his  retreat,  seems  not  yet  prepared  to  take  any  very 
decided  position.  In  a  letter  of  17th  January  1522,  to 
Wolfgang  Fabricius  Capito,  one  of  the  officials  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Mainz,  and  a  favourer  of  the  Reformation, 
he  takes  the  latter  severely  to  task  with  respect  to  his 
action  in  a  case  of  the  kind — probably  that  of  the  priest  of 
Mansfield  alluded  to  above.  The  man  had  been  set  at 
liberty,  but  forced  to  separate  himself  from  his  wife,  and 
Capito  had  defended  himself  on  the  ground  that  the  woman 
was  a  harlot.  Luther  asks  him  why  he  had  been  so  earnest 
with  a  single  strumpet,  when  he  had  taken  no  action  with 
so  many  under  his  jurisdiction  in  Halberstadt,  Mainz,  and 
Magdeburg,  and  adds  that  when  the  priest  had  acknow- 
ledged the  woman  as  his  wife  there  should  have  been 
nothing  further  done.  He  proceeds  to  say,  however,  that 
he  does  not  ask  for  the  freedom  of  sacerdotal  marriage,  and 
that  he  is  not  prepared  to  take  any  general  position  con- 
cerning it,  except  that  it  is  lawful  under  God.^  Either 
with  or  without  his  approbation,  however,  his  friends  lost 
no  time  in  enforcing  the  new  dogma,  which  they  pro- 
claimed to  the  world  in  the  most  authoritative  manner. 
During  the  same  year  Luther's  own  Augustinian  Order 

1  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1521. 

2  Lutheri  Epist.  Jenae,  1545,  T  II.  fol.  38,  39. 


44  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

held  a  provincial  synod  at  Wittenberg,  in  which  they 
formally  threw  open  the  doors  of  the  monasteries,  and 
permitted  all  who  desired  it  to  return  to  the  world,  declar- 
ing that  in  Christ  there  was  no  distinction  between  Jew 
and  Greek,  monk  and  layman,  and  that  a  vow  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Gospel  was  no  vow,  but  an  impiety.  Cere- 
monies, observances,  and  dress  were  pronounced  futile ; 
those  who  chose  to  abide  by  the  estabhshed  rule  were  free 
to  do  so,  but  their  preferences  were  not  to  be  a  law  to 
their  fellows.  Those  who  were  fitted  for  preaching  the 
Word  were  advised  to  depart ;  those  who  remained  were 
obliged  to  perform  the  manual  labour  which  had  been  so 
prominent  a  portion  of  primitive  Teutonic  monasticism, 
and  mendicancy  was  strictly  forbidden.  In  a  few  short 
and  simple  canons  a  radical  rebellion  thus  declared  itself 
in  the  heart  of  an  ancient  and  powerful  order,  and  princi- 
ples were  promulgated  which  were  totally  at  variance  with 
sacerdotalism  in  all  its  protean  forms.^ 

This  broad  spirit  of  toleration  did  not  suit  the  views  of 
the  more  progressive  reformers.  In  Luther's  own  Augus- 
tinian  convent  at  Wittenberg,  one  of  his  most  zealous 
adherents,  Gabriel  Zwilling,  preached  against  monachism 
in  general,  taking  the  ground  that  salvation  required  the 
renunciation  of  their  vows  by  all  who  had  been  ensnared 
into  assuming  the  cowl ;  and  so  great  was  his  success  that 
thirteen  monks  at  once  abandoned  the  convent.  Yet  even 
on  Luther's  return  tojWittenberg  he  at  first  took  no  part 
in  the  movement.  He  retained  his  Augustinian  habit,  and 
continued  his  residence  in  the  convent ;  but  before  the 
close  of  the  year  (1522)  he  put  forth  his  work,  "  De  Votis 
Monasticis,"  in  which  he  fully  and  finally  adopted  the 
views  of  his  friends,  and  showed  himself  as  an  uncompro- 
mising enemy  of  monasticism.^     How  difficult  it  was  for 

1  Synod.  Vaitemberg.  (Lutheri  Opp.  II.  470.) 

2  Lutheri  Opp.   II.  477   sqq. — In  this  edition  the  tract  is  dated  1522  in  the 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        45 

him,  however,  to  shake  off  the  habitudes  in  which  he  had 
been  trained  is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  even  at  the  end  of 
1523,  he  still  sometimes  preached  in  his  cowl  and  some- 
times without  it/ 

Notwithstanding  the  zealous  opposition  of  the  orthodox 
ecclesiastical  authorities,  the  doctrine  and  practice  of 
Wittenberg  were  not  long  in  finding  earnest  defenders 
and  imitators.  But  few  such  marriages,  it  is  true,  are 
recorded  in  1522,  although  Balthazar  Sturmius,  an 
Augustinian  monk  of  Saxony,  committed  the  bolder 
indiscretion  of  marrying  a  widow  of  Franconia.  In  that 
year,  however,  we  find  Franz  von  Sickingen,  knight-errant 
and  condottiere,  who  was  then  a  power  in  the  state, 
advocating  the  emancipation  and  marriage  of  the  religious 
orders,  in  a  letter  to  his  father-in-law,  Diedrich  von  Henth- 
schuchsheyn.  Still  more  important  was  the  movement 
inaugurated  in  Switzerland  by  Ulrich  Zwingli,  who,  with 
ten  other  monks  of  Notre-Dame-des-Hermites,  on  July  2, 
1522,  addressed  to  Hugo  von  Hohenlandemberg,  Bishop 
of  Constance,  a  petition  requesting  the  pri\dlege  of 
marriage.  The  petitioners  boldly  argued  the  matter,  citing 
the  usual  Scriptural  authorities,  and  adjured  the  bishop  in 
the  most  pressing  terms  to  grant  their  request.  They 
warned  him  that  a  refusal  might  entail  ruinous  disorders 
on  the  whole  sacerdotal  body,  and  that,  unless  he  seized 
the  opportunity  to  guide  the  movement,  it  might  speedily 
assume  a  most  disastrous  shape.  They  asserted,  indeed, 
that  not  only  in  Switzerland,  but  elsewhere,  it  was  gener- 
ally believed  that  a  majority  of  ecclesiastics  had  already 
chosen  their  future  wives,  and  that  a  return  to  the  old 
order  of  things  was  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  accom- 

index  and  1521  in  the  text.  Henke  and  Ranke,  however,  agree  in  assigning  it  to  a 
period  subsequent  to  his  return  from  Wartburg. 

1  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1523.— The  fact  that  Spalatin  recorded  whether  he  wore 
the  cowl  or  not,  shows  the  importance  which  Luther's  friends  attached  to  his  exam- 
ple with  respect  to  it. 


46  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

plish.  This  was  followed,  July  13,  by  a  similar  memorial 
addressed  to  the  Government  of  the  Swiss  Confederacy. 
The  signers  frankly  admitted  their  inabihty  to  preserve 
chastity,  and  asked  the  State  to  protect  them  in  their 
marriages  if  the  bishop  allowed  them  to  marry.^ 

In  this  assertion,  ZwingU  and  his  companions  followed 
perhaps  rather  the  dictates  of  their  hopes  than  of  their 
judgment,  for  the  revolution  was  by  no  means  as  universal 
or  immediate  as  their  threats  or  warnings  would  indicate. 
Its    progress,  nevertheless,  was  rapid  and  decided.       In 
Zurich  the  secular  authorities  gave  permission  to  all  nuns 
to  abandon  their  cloisters ;  in  1523,  Leo  Judae,  ZwingU's 
foremost  disciple  and  parish  priest  of  St.  Peters,  married  a 
former  beguine,  and   in   1524  Zwingli  himself    married 
Anna  Reinhart,  widow  of  Hans  Meyer,  with  whom  he  had 
been  living  as  man  and  wife  since  1522.^     In  Germany, 
Luther,  whom  we  have  seen,  in  the  earlier  part  of  1522, 
still  giving  but  a  qualified  assent  to  the  daring  innovation 
of  his  followers,   in  February  1523  wrote  to  Spalatin  in 
favour  of  a  married  pastor  who  was  seeking  preferment  at 
the   hands  of  the  Elector  Frederic;^  and  in  April  1523 
he  himself  officiated  and  preached  a  sermon  in  favour  of 
matrimony  to  a  multitude  of  distinguished  friends  at  the 
wedding  of    Wenceslas  Link,  vicar  of  the  Augustinian 
Order,  one  of  his  oldest  and  most  valued  supporters,  who 
had  stood  unflinchingly  by  him  when  arraigned  by  Cardinal 
Caietano  before  the  Emperor  Maximilian  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg.*      Not  less  important  was   the  countenance 

1  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1522.— Huldreich  Zwingli,  by  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson, 
p.  166  (New  York,  1901). 

2  Jackson's  Huldreich  Zwingli,  p.  232. — Herzog,  Abriss,  III.  76.  See  Ibid.  p.  88, 
for  the  contest  in  Basle  over  the  marriage  of  Stephan  Stoer,  pastor  of  Liestal,  where 
(Ecolampadius  maintained  the  unscriptural  character  of  the  canon  of  celibacy. 

3  Supplement.  Epistt.  M.  Lutheri  No.  31  (Halse,  1703). 

4  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1523. — Thammii  Chron.  Colditens. — Link  married  a 
daughter  of  Suicer,  a  lawyer  of  Oldenburg,  in  Misnia,  and  the  bride's  example  was 
shortly  afterwards  followed  by  her  two  sisters,  one  of  whom  was  united  to  Wolfgang 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        47 

given  to  the  innovation,  two  days  later,  by  the  Elector 
Frederic,  who  consented  to  act  as  sponsor  at  the  baptism 
of  the  first-born  of  Franz  Gunther,  pastor  of  Loch,^  the 
ceremony  being  performed  by  the  honest  chronicler  Spalatin 
himself. 

It  is  curious  to  see  in  Spalatin^s  diary  how  each  succes- 
sive marriage  is  recorded  as  a  matter  of  the  utmost  interest, 
the  hopes  of  the  reformers  being  strengthened  by  every 
accession  to  the  ranks  of  those  who  dared  to  defy  the  rules 
which  had  been  deemed  irreversible  for  centuries.  Nor 
was  it  an  act  without  danger,  for  no  open  rupture  had  as 
yet  taken  place  between  the  temporal  power  of  any  state 
and  the  central  authority  at  Rome.  Even  in  electoral 
Saxony,  though  Duke  Frederic,  by  a  cautious  course  of 
passive  resistance,  afforded  protection  to  the  heretics,  yet 
he  still  considered  himself  a  Catholic,  and  the  ritual  of 
his  chapel  was  unaltered.  Elsewhere  the  ecclesiastical 
power  was  bent  on  asserting  its  supremacy  over  the 
licentious  apostates  who  ventured  to  sully  their  vows  and 
prostitute  the  sacrament  of  marriage  by  their  incestuous 
unions.  The  old  charge  of  promiscuous  intercourse  was 
resorted  to  in  their  case,  as  it  has  been  with  almost  every 
heresy  in  every  age,  for  the  purpose  of  exciting  popular 
odium,^  and  wherever  the  discipline  of  the  Church  could  be 
enforced,  it  was  done  unsparingly.  The  temper  of  these 
endeavours  to  repress  the  movement  is  well  illustrated  by 

Fuess,  parish  priest  of  Kolditz,  and  formerly  a  monk  of  Gera ;  while  the  other  accepted 
the  addresses  of  the  parish  priest  of  Kitscheren.    (Spalatin,  ubi  sup.) 

1  Spalatin,  ubi  sup. — How  these  innovations  were  regarded  in  Rome  is  manifested 
in  a  minatory  epistle  addressed,  in  1522,  by  Adrian  VI.  to  the  Elector  Frederic  of 
Saxony.  "  Et  cum  ipse  sit  apostata  ac  professionis  suae  deserter,  ut  plurimos  sui 
faciat  similes,  sancta  ilia  Deo  vasa  polluere  non  veretur,  consecratasque  virgines  et 
vitam  monasticam  professas  extrahere  a  monasteriis  suis,  et  mundo  imo  diabolo 
quem  semel  abjuraverunt,  reddere  .  .  .  Christi  sacerdotes  etiam  vilissimis  copulant 
meretricibus,"  etc.     (Hartzheim  VI.  192.) 

2  See  the  address  of  Frederic  Nausea,  surnamed  Blancicampianus,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Vienna,  at  the  Council  of  Mainz  in  1527. — Synod.  Mogunt.  ann.  1527 
(Hartzheim  VI.  207). 


48  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  regulations  promulgated  under  the  authority  of  the 
Cardinal-legate  Campeggio,  when  in  1524  he  succeeded  in 
uniting  a  number  of  reactionary  princes  at  the  Assembly 
of  Ratisbon.  Deploring  the  sacrilege  committed  in  the 
marriages  of  priests  and  monks,  which  were  becoming 
extremely  common,  he  granted  permission  to  the  secular 
powers  to  seize  all  such  apostates  and  deliver  them  to  the 
ecclesiastical  officials,  significantly  restraining  them,  how- 
ever, from  inflicting  torture.  The  officials  were  empowered 
to  condemn  the  offisnders  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  or 
to  hand  them  over  to  the  secular  arm — a  decent  euphuism 
for  a  frightful  death ;  and  any  neghgence  on  the  part  of 
the  ordinaries  exposed  those  officers  to  the  pains  and 
penalties  of  heresy.^ 

In  spite  of  all  this,  however,  the  votaries  of  marriage  had 
the  support  and  sympathy  of  the  great  body  of  the  people. 
It  shows  how  widely  diffused  and  strongly  implanted  was 
the  conviction  of  the  evils  of  celibacy,  when  those  who 
four  centuries  earlier  had  so  cruelly  persecuted  their 
pastors  for  not  discarding  their  wives  now  urged  them  to 
marriage,  and  were  ready  to  protect  them  from  the  conse- 
quences of  the  act.  Thus,  during  the  summer  of  1524, 
Wolfgang  Fabricius  Capito,  provost  of  St.  Thomas  and 
priest  of  the  church  of  St.  Peter  at  Strassburg,  whom  we 
have  seen  two  years  earlier  prosecuting  a  married  priest, 
took  to  himself  a  wife,  by  the  request  of  his  parishioners  ; 
and  when  the  chapter  of  canons  endeavoured  to  interfere 
-with  him,  the  threatening  aspect  of  the  populace  warned 
them  to  desist.  Nor  was  this  the  only  case,  for  Bishop 
William  undertook  to  excommunicate  all  the  married 
priests  of  Strassburg,  when  the  senate  of  the  city  resolutely 
espoused  their  cause,  and  even  the  authority  of  the  legate 
Campeggio  could  not  reconcile  the  quarrel.^ 

1  Reformat.  Cleri  German,  ann.  1524  c.  26  (Goldast.  Constit.  Imp.  III.  491), 

2  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1524, 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        49 

Even  higher  protection  was  sometimes  not  wanting. 
When  Adrian  VI.,  in  1522,  reproached  the  Diet  of  Niirn- 
berg  with  the  inobservance  of  the  decree  of  Worms  and  the 
consequent  growth  of  Lutheranism,  and  King  Ferdinand, 
in  the  name  of  the  German  states,  repHed  that  a  council 
for  the  reformation  of  the  Church  was  the  only  remedy, 
the  question  of  married  priests  arose  for  discussion.  The 
German  princes  alleged  that  they  could  find  in  the  civil 
and  municipal  laws  no  provisions  for  the  punishment  of 
such  transgressions,  and  that  the  canons  of  discipline 
could  only  be  enforced  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
themselves,  who  ought  not  to  be  interfered  with  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duty  by  the  secular  authorities.^  This 
was  scant  encouragement,  but  even  this  was  often  denied 
in  practice.  When,  in  1523,  Conrad  von  Tungen,  Bishop 
of  Wurzburg,  threw  into  prison  two  of  his  canons,  the 
doctors  John  Apel  and  Frederic  Fischer,  for  the  crime  of 
marrying  nuns,  the  Council  of  Regency  at  Nlirnberg 
forced  him  to  liberate  them  in  a  few  weeks.  ^  The  latter 
fact  is  the  more  remarkable,  since  but  a  short  time  pre- 
viously (6  March,  1523)  the  Imperial  Diet  at  Nlirnberg, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  same  Regency,  had  expressed  its 
desire  to  give  every  assistance  to  the  ecclesiastical  authority 
in  enforcing  the  canons.  In  a  decree  on  the  subject  of 
the  religious  disturbances  it  adopted  the  canon  law  on 
celibacy  as  part  of  the  civil  law,  pronouncing  sentence 
of  imprisonment  and  confiscation  on  all  members  of  the 
clergy  who  should  marry,  and  ordering  the  civil  power  in 

1  Kespons.  S.  R.  I.  Ordinum  Norimb.  cap.  18  (Goldast.  op.  cit.  I.  455).— With  this 
the  Legate  Cheregato  professed  himself  to  be  content,  but  he  bitterly  complained 
of  an  intimation  that  if  these  apostate  priests  and  nuns  transgressed  the  laws  in  any 
other  way,  the  secular  tribunals  would  punish  them.  He  held  that,  though  apos- 
tates, they  were  still  ecclesiastics,  only  amenable  to  the  courts  Christian,  and  he 
protested  against  any  violation  of  the  privileges  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Church 
such  as  would  be  committed  in  bringing  them  before  a  civil  magistrate.  (Ibid, 
p.  456.) 

2  Spalatin.  ann.  1523. 

VOL.  II.  D 


50  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

all  cases  to  assist  the  ecclesiastical  in  its  efforts  to  punish 
offenders.^ 

In  the  Low  Countries,  under  the  Regency  of  Margaret 
of  Austria,  the  civil  power  not  only  assisted  but  stimulated 
the  ecclesiastical  to  its  duty.  A  conspicuous  case  was 
that  of  Jan  de  Backer  (Pistorius)  of  Woerden,  who  had 
married,  abandoned  the  priesthood,  and  supported  himself 
by  manual  labour,  until  the  preaching  of  the  St.  Peter's 
indulgence  in  Woerden  induced  him  to  resume  the  ton- 
sure and  priestly  functions  in  order  to  combat  it.  It 
illustrates  the  disciplinary  looseness  of  the  pre-Reformation 
period  that  he  seems  not  to  have  been  disturbed  in  his 
apostacy  and  marriage,  but  the  Lutheran  revolt  had 
created  a  different  temper.  He  was  arrested  and  carried 
to  The  Hague,  where  he  was  tried  by  the  inquisitors  of 
Louvain,  who  earnestly  endeavoured  to  induce  him  to 
abandon  his  wife  and  recant  his  errors  as  to  papal  authority, 
purgatory,  &c.,  but  in  vain.  There  was  nothing  left  to  do 
with  him  but  to  burn  him  alive,  which  was  executed 
accordingly,  15  September,  1525.^ 

The  emancipation  of  nuns  excited  considerable  public 
interest,  and  in  many  instances  was  effected  by  aid  from 
without.  A  certain  Leonhard  Kopp,  who  was  a  deter- 
mined enemy  of  monachism,  rendered  himself  somewhat 
notorious  by  exploits  of  the  kind.  One  of  the  earliest 
instances  was  that  by  which,  on  Easter  Eve,  1523,  at  con- 
siderable risk,  he  succeeded  in  carrying  off  from  the 
convent  of  Nimptschen,  in  Misnia,  eight  young  virgins  of 
noble  birth,  all  of  whom  were  subsequently  married,  and 
one  of  whom  was  Catharine  von  Bora.^  The  example  was 
contagious.     Before  the  month  was  out  six  nuns,  all  of 

1  Edict.  Norimb.  Convent,  ann.  1523  c.  10,  18,  19  (Goldast.  II.  151).— This  illus- 
trates well  the  vacillating  conduct  of  the  Council  of  Regency  during  this  period. 

2  Fredericq,  Corpus  Documentt.  Tnquisitionis  Neerlandicse,  IV.  406-99. 

3  Chron.  Torgavias — Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1523.  He  conveyed  them  at  once  to 
Wittenberg,  and  Luther  writes  to  Spalatin  asking  him  to  collect  funds  for  their 
support  until  they  can  be  permanently  provided  for. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        51 

noble  blood,  left  the  abbey  of  Sormitz,  and  soon  after 
eight  escaped  from  that  of  Peutwitz,  at  Weissenfels/ 
Monks  enfranchised  themselves  with  still  less  trouble. 
At  Nurnberg,  in  1524,  the  Augustinians  in  a  body  threw 
off  their  cowls  and  proclaimed  themselves  citizens.^ 

Finally,  Luther  gave  the  last  and  most  unquestionable 
proof  of  his  adhesion  to  the  practice  of  sacerdotal  mar- 
riage by  espousing  Catharine  von  Bora,  whom  we  have 
seen  escaping,  two  years  before,  from  the  convent  of 
Nimptschen.  Scandal,  it  would  seem,  had  been  busy  with 
the  intimacy  between  the  pious  doctor  and  the  fair  rene- 
gade, who  had  spent  nearly  the  whole  period  of  her  liberty 
at  Wittenberg,  and  Luther,  with  the  practical  decision  of 
character  which  distinguished  him,  suddenly  resolved  to 
put  the  most  effectual  stop  to  rumours  which  his  enemies 
doubtless  were  delighted  to  circulate.  On  the  evening  of 
13  June,  1525,  without  consulting  his  friends,  he  invited 
to  supper  Pomeranius,  Lucas  Cranach,  and  Apellus,  and 
had  the  marriage  ceremony  performed.^  It  took  his 
followers  completely  by  surprise ;  many  of  them  dis- 
approved of  it,  and  Justus  Jonas,  in  communicating  the 
fact  to  Spalatin,  characterises  it  as  a  startling  event,  and 
evidently  feels  that  his  correspondent  will  require  the  most 
incontrovertible  evidence  of  the  fact,  when  he  declares 
that  he  himself  had  been  present  and  had  seen  the  bride- 
groom in  the  marriage  bed.*     If  the  portraits  after  Lucas 

1  Spalatin.  ubi  sup. 

2  Spalatin.  ann.  1524. 

5  Melanchthon  to  Camerarius  {ap.  Mayeri  Dissert,  de  Cath.  Lutheri  conjuge. 
pp.  25-6). — Melanchthon  can  only  suggest  that  it  was  a  mysterious  act  of  Providence. 
— "  Isto  enim  sub  negotio  fortasse  aliquid  occulti  et  quiddam  divinius  subest,  de 
quo  nos  curiose  quaerere  non  decet." — The  whole  letter  is  singularly  apologetic  in 
its  tone, 

4  Spalatin.  ann.  1525. 

Pomeranius,  a  priest  of  Wittenberg,  in  writing  to  Spalatin,  gives  as  the  reason  of 
Luther's  marriage — "  Maligna  fama  effecit  ut  Doct.  Martinus  insperato  fieret  con- 
junx"  ;  and  Luther,  in  a  letter  to  the  same,  admits  this  even  more  distinctly — "Os 
obstruxi  infamantibus  me  cum  Catherina  Borana."  That  his  action  was  not  gene- 
rally approved  by  his  friends  is  apparent  from  his  asking  Michael  Stiefel  to  pray  that 


52  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

Cranach  given  in  Mayer's  Dissertation  on  Catharine  be 
faithful  Ukenesses,  it  was  scarcely  the  beauty  of  his  bride 
that  led  Luther  to  take  this  step,  for  her  features  seem 
rather  African  than  European.^ 

When  Luther  had  once  decided  for  himself  on  the 
propriety  of  sacerdotal  marriage,  he  was  not  likely  to  stop 
half-way.     Some  of  the  reformers  were  disposed  to  adopt 

his  new  life  may  sanctify  him — "Nam  vehementer  irritantur  sapientes,  etiam  inter 
nostros."— Spalatin.  ubi  sup. 

That  surprise  should  have  been  aroused  is  singular,  when  he  had  already  pro- 
claimed the  most  extreme  views  in  favour  of  matrimony.  As  early  as  1522  be 
delivered  his  famous  "  Sermo  de  Matrimonio,"  in  which  he  enjoins  it  in  the  strictest 
manner  as  a  duty  incumbent  upon  all.  Thus,  in  considering  the  impediments  to 
marriage,  he  treats  of  vows,  concerning  which  he  says  :  "  Sin  votum  admissum  est, 
videndum  tibi  est,  ut  supra  memoravi,  num  tribus  eviratorum  generibus  compre- 
hendaris,  qu£e  conjugio  ademit  Deus,  ubi  te  in  aliquo  istorum  uno  non  repereris, 
votum  rescindas,  monasticen  deseras  oportet ;  moxque  ad  naturalem  sociam  adjungas 
te  matrimonii  lege."— P.  i.  c.  8  (0pp.  Ed.  Vuitemberg.  V.  121).  To  this  must  be 
added  his  decided  opinions  on  the  subject  of  conjugal  rights,  as  developed  in  the 
well-known  passage  which  has  excited  so  much  animadversion,  and  which,  if  we  are 
to  interpret  it  literally,  conveys  a  doctrine  which  sounds  so  strangely  as  the  precept 
of  a  teacher  of  morality.  In  treating  of  the  causes  of  divorce,  he  remarks  :  "  Tertia 
ratio  est,  ubi  alter  alteri  sese  subduxerit,  ut  debitam  benevolentiam  persolvere  nolit, 
aut  habitare  cum  renuerit.  Eeperiuntur  enim  interdum  adeo  pertinaces  uxores,  qui 
etiam  si  decies  in  libidinem  prolabentur  mariti  pro  sua  duritia  non  curarent.  Hie 
oportunum  est  ut  maritus  dicat  '  Si  tu  nolueris,  alia  volet.'  Si  domina  nolit,  adveniat 
ancilla,  ita  tamen  ut  antea  iterum  et  tertio  uxorem  admoneat  maritus,  et  corum  aliis 
ejus  etiam  pertinaciam  detegat,  ut  publice  et  ante  conspectum  ecclesise,  duritia  ejus 
et  agnoscatur  et  reprehendatur.  Si  tum  renuat,  repudia  eam,  et  in  vicem  Vasti 
Ester  surroga,  Assueri  regis  exemplo  "  (Ibid.  p.  123). 

One  conclusion  at  least  can  safely  be  drawn  from  this,  that  the  morality  of  the 
age  had  impressed  Luther  with  the  belief  that  the  self-restraint  of  chastity  was 
impossible. 

That  the  Catholics  should  make  themselves  merry  over  the  marriage  of  the  apos- 
tate monk  and  nun  was  to  be  expected,  and  Jerome  Emser  did  not  think  it  beneath 
him  to  write  an  epithalamium  on  the  wedding  of  his  former  friend,  of  which  the 
following  may  be  taken  as  a  specimen — 

Ad  Priapum  Lampsacenum 

Veneramur,  et  Silenum 

Bacchumque  cum  Venere 
cumjubilo. 

Septa  claustri  dissipamus, 

Sacra  vasa  compilamus 

Sumptus  unde  suppetat 
cum  jubilo. 
Mayeri  Dissert,  p.  22,  23. 
1  Mayeri  de  Cath.  Luth.  conjug.  Dissert.  4to,  Hamburgi,  1702.    Cranach,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  one  of  the  three  witnesses  present  at  the  marriage. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        53 

the  principles  of  the  early  Church,  and,  while  permitting 
married  priests  to  officiate,  denied  to  them  the  right  to 
marry  a  second  time  or  to  espouse  any  but  virgins,  declar- 
ing all  digami  worthy  of  death  and  calling  upon  the  people 
to  drive  them  out.  Against  these  Luther,  in  1528,  took 
up  the  cudgels  vigorously,  arguing  the  question  in  all  its 
bearings,  and  arriving  at  the  conclusion  that  only  bigamists 
were  to  be  shunned  or  deemed  unworthy  of  holy  orders.^ 
Yet  at  the  same  time  his  thoroughly  practical  mind  pre- 
vented him  from  losing  sight  of  some  of  the  evils  insepar- 
able from  the  revolution  which  he  had  wrought  in  an 
institution  so  deeply  affecting  daily  life  as  monasticism. 
As  late  as  1543,  in  a  letter  to  Spalatin,  while  congratulat- 
ing him  on  the  desire  expressed  by  some  nuns  to  leave 
their  convent,  he  cautions  them  not  to  do  so  unless  they 
have  a  certainty  or  at  least  a  speedy  prospect  of  marriage. 
He  complains  of  the  number  of  such  cases  in  which  he 
had  been  obliged  to  support  the  fugitives,  and  he  con- 
cludes by  declaring  that  old  women  who  had  no  chance 
of  finding  husbands  had  much  better  remain  in  their 
cloisters.^ 

It  is  not  difficult  to  explain  why  there  was  so  ready 
and  general  an  acquiescence  in  the  abrogation  of  a  rule 
established  by  the  veneration  of  so  many  centuries.  Not 
only  had  the  doctrines  of  the  reformers  taken  a  deep  and 
firm  hold  of  the  popular  heart  throughout  Germany, 
destroying  the  reverence  for  tradition  and  antiquity,  and 
releasing  the  human  mind  from  the  crushing  obligation  of 
bhnd  obedience,  but  there  were  other  motives,  natural  if 
not  particularly  creditable.  The  ecclesiastical  foundations 
had  long  neglected  the  duties  of  charity,  hospitality,  and 
education,  on  which  were  grounded  their  claims  to  their 
broad   lands   and    rich   revenues.     While,  therefore,   the 

1  Lutheri  Opp.  (Jenae,  1564)  T.  I.  fol.  496-500. 

2  Supplement  Epistt.  M.  Lutheri  No.  212  (Halae,  1703). 


54  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

temporal  princes  might  be  delighted  with  the  opportunity 
of  secularising  and  seizing  the  Church  possessions,  the 
people  might  reasonably  hope  that  the  increase  of  their 
rulers'  wealth  would  alleviate  their  own  burdens,  as  well 
as  release  them  from  the  direct  oppression  which  many  of 
them  suffered  from  the  religious  establishments.  Even 
more  potential  was  the  disgust  everywhere  felt  for  the 
flagrant  immorality  of  the  priesthood.  The  dread  experi- 
enced by  every  husband  and  father  lest  wife  and  daughter 
might  at  any  moment  fall  victims  to  the  lust  of  those 
who  had  every  opportunity  for  the  gratification  of  unholy 
passions  led  them  to  welcome  the  change,  in  the  hope  that 
it  would  result  in  restoring  decency  and  virtue  to  a  class 
which  had  long  seemed  to  regard  its  sacred  character  as  the 
shield  and  instrument  of  crime. 

The  moral  character  of  the  clergy,  indeed,  had  not 
improved  during  the  busy  and  eventful  years  which 
marked  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There 
is  a  curious  little  tract,  printed  in  Cologne  in  1.505,  with 
the  approbation  of  the  faculty,  which  is  directed  against 
concubinage  in  general,  but  particularly  against  that  of  the 
priests.  Its  laborious  accumulation  of  authorities  to  prove 
that  licentiousness  is  a  sin  is  abundant  evidence  of  the 
existing  demoralisation,  while  the  practices  which  it  com- 
bats, of  guilty  ecclesiastics  granting  absolution  to  each 
other  and  mutually  dispensing  themselves  from  confession, 
show  how  easily  the  safeguards  with  which  the  Church 
had  sought  to  surround  her  ministers  were  eluded.^  The 
degradation  of  the  priesthood,  indeed,  can  readily  be 
measured  when,  in  the  little  town  of  Hof,  in  the  Vogtland, 
three  priests  could  be  found  defiling  the  sacredness  of  Ash 
Wednesday  by  fiercely  fighting  over  a  courtesan  in  a  house 

1  Avisamentum  de  Concubinariis  non  absolvendis,  4to,  1505. — The  author  devotes 
a  long  argument  to  prove  that  incontinence  in  a  priest  is  worse  than  homicide.  His 
conclusion  is  "  Omnis  sacerdos  fornicando  est  sacrilegus  et  perjurus ;  et  gravius 
totiens  quotiens  peccat  quam  si  hominem  occidat." 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        55 

of  iU-fame ;  ^  or  when  Leo  X.,  in  a  feeble  effort  at  reform, 
was  obliged  to  argue  that  systematic  licentiousness  was  not 
rendered  excusable  because  its  prevalence  amounted  to  a 
custom,  or  because  it  was  openly  tolerated  by  those  whose 
duty  was  to  repress  it.^  In  fact,  a  clause  in  the  Concordat 
with  Francis  I.  in  1516,  rene^ving  and  enhancing  the  former 
punishments  for  public  concubinage,  would  almost  justify 
the  presumption  that  the  principal  result  of  the  rule  of 
cehbacy  was  to  afford  to  the  officials  a  regular  revenue 
derived  from  the  sale  of  licences  to  sin  ^ — the  old  abuse, 
which  rises  before  us  in  every  age  from  the  time  of 
Damiani  and  Hildebrand,  and  which,  since  John  XXII. 
had  framed  the  tariff  of  absolutions  for  crime  known  as 
the  "  Taxes  of  the  Penitentiary,"  had  the  authority  of 
the  papacy  itself  to  justify  it.  In  the  oldest  form  in  which 
this  has  reached  us,  issued  by  Benedict  XII.  in  1338,  abso- 
lution and  dispensation  for  a  concubinary  priest  is  rated  at 
only  four  g7^os  tournois,  or  less  than  half  a  florin,  and  the 
same  price  is  named  for  the  absolution  of  one  who  has 
been  suspended  for  adultery.  In  a  somewhat  later  tax- 
list,  dispensation  for  the  son  of  a  priest  to  be  admitted  to 
orders  and  preferment  is  rated  at  twelve  gros,  but  if  he 
desired  a  bishopric,  it  cost  thirty.^     It  is  no  wonder  that 

1  Wideman.  Chron.  Curiae  ann.  1505. 

2  Neque  superiorum  tolerantia,  sen  prava  consuetude,  quae  potius  corruptela 
dicenda  est,  a  multitudine  peccantium,  aliave  qugelibet  excusatio  eis  aliquo  modo 
suffragetur. — Concil.  Lateran.  V.  ann.  1514  Sess.  ix. 

3  Quia  vero  in  quibusdam  regionibus  nonnuUi  jurisdictionem  ecclesiasticam 
habentes,  pecuniarios  qusestos  a  concubinariis  percipere  non  erubescunt,  patientes 
eosin  tali  foeditate  sordescere. — Concil.  Lateran.  V.  ann.  1516  Sess.  xi.—  Cf.  Cornel. 
Agripp.  De  Vanitate  Scient.  c.lxiv. — Agrippa  even  states  that  it  was  a  common  thing 
for  bishops  to  sell  to  women  whose  husbands  were  absent  the  right  to  commit  adultery 
without  sin. 

4  P.  Denifle,  Die  alteste  TaxroUe  der  apost.  Ponitentiarie  (Archiv  fiir  Literatur- 
und-Kirchengeschichte,  Bd.  V.  pp.  227,  230).— Tangl.  Das  Taxwesen  der  papstlichen 
Kanzlei,  Mittheilungen  des  Instituts  fiir  Oesterreichische  Geschichtsforschung, 
Bd.  XIII.,  pp.  96,  97. 

These  prices  nv  ere  simply  for  the  letters  ;  there  were  other  fees  which  increased 
the  cost  considerably,  and  when  sin  had  been  committed  there  were  pecuniary  « 
penances  at  the  discretion  of  the  papal  penitentiaries. 


56  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

reforming  bishops  and  councils  found  their  efforts  baffled 
when  the  only  result  was  to  increase  the  revenues  of  the 
papal  chancery  by  stimulating  the  demand  for  its  inter- 
ference. 

That  no  concealment  was  thought  necessary,  and  that 
sensual  indulgence  was  not  deemed  derogatory  in  any  way 
to  the  character  of  a  Christian  prelate,  may  be  reasonably 
deduced  from  the  panegyric  of  Gerard  of  Nimeguen  on 
Phihp  of  Burgundy,  grand-uncle  of  Charles  V.,  a  learned 
and  accomplished  man,  who  filled  the  important  see  of 
Utrecht  from  1517  to  1524.  Gerard  alludes  to  the  amorous 
propensities  and  promiscuous  intrigues  of  his  patron  with- 
out reserve,  and  as  his  book  was  dedicated  to  the  Arch- 
duchess Margaret,  sister  of  Charles  V.,  it  is  evident  that  he 
did  not  feel  his  remarks  to  be  defamatory.  The  good  pre- 
late, too,  no  doubt  represented  the  convictions  of  a  large 
portion  of  his  class,  when  he  was  wont  to  smile  at  those 
who  urged  the  propriety  of  celibacy,  and  to  declare  his 
belief  in  the  impossibility  of  chastity  among  men  who,  like 
the  clergy,  were  pampered  with  high  living  and  tempted 
by  indolence.  Those  who  professed  to  keep  their  vows 
inviolate  he  denounced  as  hypocrites  of  the  worst  descrip- 
tion, and  he  deemed  them  far  worse  than  their  brethren 
who  sought  to  avoid  unnecessary  scandal  by  decently 
keeping  their  concubines  at  home.^ 

Even  this  reticence,  however,  was  considered  unneces- 
sary by  a  large  portion  of  the  clergy.  In  1512,  the  Bishop 
of  Ratisbon  issued  a  series  of  canons  in  which,  after  quoting 
the  Basilian  regulations,  he  adds  that  many  of  his  eccle- 
siastics maintain  their  concubines  so  openly  that  it  would 
appear  as  though  they  saw  neither  sin  nor  scandal  in  such 
conduct,  and  that  their  evil  example  was  the  efficient  cause 
of  corrupting  the  faithful.^  In  Switzerland  the  same  abuses 

1  Gerardi  Noviomagi  Philippus  Burgundus  (Mathaei  Analect.  I.  230). 

2  Statut.  Synod.  Joan.  Episc.  Eatispon.  ann.  1512  (Hartzheim  VI.  86). 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        57 

were  quite  as  prevalent,  if  we  may  believe  a  memorial 
presented,  in  1533,  by  the  citizens  of  Lausanne,  complain- 
ing of  the  conduct  of  their  clergy.  They  rebuked  the  in- 
continence of  the  priests,  whose  numerous  children  were 
accustomed  to  earn  a  living  by  beggary  in  the  streets,  but 
the  canons  were  the  subjects  of  their  especial  objurgation. 
The  dean  of  the  chapter  had  defied  an  excommunication 
launched  at  him  for  buying  a  house  near  the  church  in 
which  to  keep  his  mistress  ;  others  of  the  canons  had  taken 
to  themselves  the  wives  of  citizens  and  refused  to  give  them 
up ;  but  the  quaintest  grievance  of  which  they  had  been 
guilty  was  the  injury  which  their  competition  inflicted  on 
the  public  brothel  of  the  town.^  What  was  the  condition 
of  clerical  morality  in  Italy  may  be  gathered  from  the 
stories  of  Bishop  Bandello,  who,  as  a  Dominican  and  a 
prelate,  may  fairly  be  deemed  to  represent  the  tone  of  the 
thinking  and  educated  classes  of  society.  The  cynical 
levity  with  which  he  narrates  scandalous  tales  about  monks 
and  priests  shows  that  in  the  public  mind  sacerdotal  im- 
morality was  regarded  almost  as  a  matter  of  course.^ 

The  powerful  influence  of  all  this  on  the  progress  of  the 
Reformation  was  freely  admitted  by  the  authorities  of  the 
Church.  When  the  legate  Campeggio  was  sent  to  Germany 
to  check  the  spread  of  heresy,  in  his  reformatory  edict 
issued  at  Ratisbon  in  1524  he  declared  that  the  efforts  of 
the  Lutherans  had  no  little  justification  in  the  detestable 
morals  and  lives  of  the  clergy,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  his 
unsparing  denunciation  of  their  licentiousness,  drunkenness, 
quarrels,  and  tavern-haunting ;  their  traffic  in  absolution 

1  Art.  18e  "  Item.  Mais,  Nous  nous  plaignions  d'aucuns  chanoines  qui  nous  gatent 
notre  bordeau  de  la  ville,  car  11  y  en  a  qui  le  tiennent  en  leurs  maisons,  privement, 
pour  tous  venans." — Quoted  from  a  contemporary  MS.  by  Abraham  Ruchat  in  his 
"  Histoire  de  la  Reformation  de  la  Suisse,"  T.  I.  p.  xxxiii.-v.  (Geneve,  1727.)  Ac- 
cording to  Cornelius  Agrippa,  the  Roman  prelates  derived  a  regular  revenue  from  this 
source,  the  right  to  keep  definite  numbers  of  strumpets  in  the  public  brothels  being 
partitioned  out  between  them. — De  Vanitate  Scient.  c.  Ixiv. 

2  See,  for  instance,  Novelle,  P.  iii.  Nov.  Ivi. 


58  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

for  enormous  offences ;  their  unclerical  habits  and  hideous 
blasphemy  ;  their  indulgence  in  incantations  and  dabbling 
in  witchcraft/  Very  significant  is  his  declaration  that  the 
canonical  punishments  shall  be  inflicted  on  concubinary 
priests,  in  spite  of  all  custom  to  the  contrary  or  all  con- 
nivance on  the  part  of  the  prelates.^ 

How  little,  indeed,  licentious  ecclesiastics  might  rea- 
sonably dread  the  canonical  punishments  is  illustrated  in 
the  report,  by  the  celebrated  jurisconsult  Grillandus,  of  a 
case  which  came  before  him  while  he  was  auditor  of  the 

1  Reformat.  Cleri  German  (Hartzheim  VI.  198). — "  Hanc  perditissimam  hgeresin 
.  .  .  Don  parvam  habuisse  occasionem,  partim  a  perditis  moribus  et  vita  clericorum" 
etc. 

.  There  was  no  scruple  in  confessing  this  fact  by  those  who  spoke  authoritatively 
for  the  Catholic  Church,  and  it  long  continued  to  be  alleged  as  the  cause  of  the  stub- 
bornness of  the  heretics.  Thus  the  Bishop  of  Constance,  in  the  canons  of  his  Synod 
of  1587 — "  Estote  etiam  memores,  damnatam  et  detestandam  cleri  vitam  huic  male 
in  quo,  proh  dolor  !  versamur,  majori  ex  parte  ansam  praebuisse  .  .  .  Omnes  sapientes 
peritique  viri  unanimi  sententia  hoc  asserunt,  hocque  efiflagitant  penitus,  ut  prius 
clerus  ecclesiarumque  ministri  ac  doctores  a  vitae  sordibus  repurgentur,  quam  ulla 
cum  adversariis  nostris  de  doctrina  concordia  expectari  queat."  And  then,  after 
describing  in  the  strongest  terms  the  vices  of  the  clergy  and  their  unwillingness  to 
reform,  he  adds,  "  Quae  sane  morum  turpitude,  vehementer  et  tantopere  imperiti 
populi  animos  oflfendit  ut  subinde  magis  magisque  a  catholica  nostra  religione  alienior 
efficiatur,  atque  sacerdotium  una  cum  sacerdotibus  doctrinam  juxta  atque  doctores, 
execretur,  dirisque  devoveat :  ita  ut  protinus  ad  quamvis  sectam  deficere  potius 
paratus  sit  quam  quod  ad  ecclesiam  ^redire  velit." — Synod.  Constant,  ann.  1567 
(Hartzheim  VII.  455). 

Pius  V.  himself  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  the  same  view.  In  an  epistle  addressed 
to  the  abbots  and  priors  of  the  diocese  of  Freysingen,  in  1567,  he  says — "  Cum  nobis- 
cum  ipsi  cogitamus  quae  res  materiam  prjsbuerit  tot  tantisque  pestiferis  hseresibus 
.  .  .  tanti  mali  causam  praecipue  fuisse  judicamus  corruptos  prselatorum  mores,  qui 
.  ;  .  eandemque  vivendi  licentiam  iis,  quibus  prseerant  permittentes  et  exemplo  eos 
suo  corrumpentes,  maximum  apud  laicos  odium  contemptionem  et  invidiam  non 
immerito  contraxerunt "  (Hartzheim  VII.  586). 

2  Reformat.  Cleri  German,  cap.  xv. — So  when,  in  1521,  Conrad, | Bishop  of  Wurz- 
burg,  issued  a  mandate  for  the  reformation  of  his  clergy,  he  described  them  as  for 
the  most  part  abandoned  to  gluttony,  drunkenness,  gambling,  quarrelling,  and  lust. 
— Mandat.  pro  Reformat.  Cleri.  (Gropp,  Script.  Rer.  Wirceburg.  I.  269).  -In  1505 
the  Bishop  of  Bamberg,  in  complaining  of  his  clergy,  shows  us  how  little  respect 
was  habitually  paid  to  the  incessant  repetition  of  the  canons. — "  Condolenter  referi- 
mus  vitam  et  honestatem  clericalem  adeo  apud  quamplures  nostrarum  civitatis  et 
dioceseos  clericos  esse  obumbratam  ut  vix  inter  clericos  et  laycos  discrimen  habea- 
tur  :  et  ipsa  statuta  nostra  synodalia  in  ipsorum  clericorum  cordibus  obliterata  et  a 
pluribus  non  visa  aut  perlecta  vilipendantur :  nullam  propter  nostram,  quam 
hactenus  pii  pastoris  more  tolleravimus  patientiam,  capientes  emendationem." — 
(Hartzheim  VI.  66.) 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY         59 

Papal  Vicar  in  Rome.  A  Spanish  priest  and  doctor  of 
canon  law,  residing  in  the  Christian  capital,  became  en- 
amoured of  several  young  nuns  at  once,  and  endeavoured 
to  seduce  them  by  teaching  them  that,  as  they  and  he 
were  alike  spouses  of  Christ,  carnal  affection  between  them 
was  their  duty.  Failing  in  this,  he  sought  to  compel  the 
assistance  of  God  in  his  designs,  and,  being  a  man  of 
literary  culture,  he  composed  a  number  of  prayers  of 
singular  obscenity,  and  bribed  various  ignorant  priests  to 
recite  them  amid  the  ineffable  mysteries  of  the  Mass, 
hoping  thus  to  obtain  the  aid  of  Heaven  in  overcoming  the 
chastity  of  his  intended  victims.  At  length  he  chanced  to 
offer  one  of  these  prayers  to  a  priest  of  somewhat  better 
character,  who  was  sufficiently  shocked  by  it  to  communi- 
cate with  the  authorities.  Brought  before  Grillandus,  the 
guilty  Spaniard  sought  to  justify  himself  by  alleging 
various  Scriptural  texts,  but  upon  being  warned  that  such 
a  defence  would  subject  him  to  a  prosecution  for  heresy, 
he  recanted  and  acknowledged  his  errors.  For  this  com- 
plicated mingling  of  lust  and  sacrilege  his  only  punishment 
was  a  short  banishment  from  Rome.^  When  the  papal 
court  set  such  an  example,  what  was  to  be  expected  of 
less  enhghtened  regions  ? 

How  keenly  these  evils  were  felt  by  the  people,  and 
how  instinctively  they  were  referred  to  the  rule  of  celibacy 
as  to  their  proper  origin,  is  shown  by  an  incidental  allusion 
in  the  formula  of  complaint  laid  before  the  Pope  by  the 
Imperial  Diet  held  at  Niirnberg  early  in  1522,  before  the 
heresy  of  priestly  marriage  had  spread  beyond  the  vicinity 
of  Wittenberg.  The  diet,  in  recounting  the  evils  arising 
from  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  which  allowed  clerical 
offenders  to  enjoy  virtual  immunity,  adduced,  among  other 
grievances,  the  Hcence  afforded  to  those  who,  debarred  by 
the  canons  from  marriage,  abandoned  themselves  night 

1  Grillandi  Tract,  de  Sortilegiis  Qusest.  xvii.  No.  1. 


60  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

and  day  to  attempts  upon  the  virtue  of  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  the  laity,  sometimes  gaining  their  ends  by 
flattery  and  presents,  and  sometimes  taking  advantage  of 
the  opportunities  offered  by  the  confessional.  It  was  not 
uncommon,  indeed,  for  women  to  be  openly  carried  off  by 
their  priests,  while  their  husbands  and  fathers  were 
threatened  with  vengeance  if  they  should  attempt  to 
recover  them.  As  regards  the  sale  to  ecclesiastics  of 
licences  to  indulge  in  habitual  lust,  the  diet  declared  it  to 
be  a  regular  and  settled  matter,  reduced  to  the  form  of  an 
annual  tax,  which  in  most  dioceses  was  exacted  of  all  the 
clergy  ^dthout  exception,  so  that  when  those  who  per- 
chance lived  chastely  demurred  at  the  payment,  they  were 
told  that  the  bishop  must  have  the  money,  and  that  after 
it  was  handed  over  they  might  take  their  choice  whether 
to  keep  concubines  or  not.^  In  the  face  of  this  condition 
of  ecclesiastical  morality,  it  required  some  obtuseness  for 
Adrian  VI.  to  compare  Luther  to  Mahomet,  the  one  seek- 
ing to  attract  to  his  party  the  carnal-minded  by  permitting 
marriage,  even  as  the  other  had  established  polygamy,^ 
and,  further,  to  abuse  him  for  uniting  the  ministers  of 
Christ  with  the  vilest  harlots.^ 

Among  the  diverse  opinions  of  existing  evils  and  their 
remedy,  it  is  interesting  to  see  what  was  the  view  of  the 
subject  taken  by  those  ecclesiastics  whose  purity  of  life 
removed  them  from  all  temptation  to  indulgence,  and  who 

1  Gravamin.  Ordin,  Imperii  cap.  xxi.,  Ivii.,  Ixx.  (Goldast.  I.  464.) 

When  such  complaints  were  made  by  the  highest  authority  in  the  empire,  it  is 
not  diflScult  to  understand  the  reasons  which  led  the  senate  of  Niirnberg — which 
city  had  not  yet  embraced  the  Reformation — to  deprive,  in  1524,  the  Dominicans 
and  Franciscans  of  the  superintendence  and  visitation  of  the  nuns  of  St.  Catharine 
and  St.  Clare  ;  norido  we  need  Spalatin's  malicious  suggestion — "  cura  et  visitatione, 
pene  dixeram  corruptione." — Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1524. 

2  Adriani  PP.  VI.  Instructio  data  Fr.  Cheregato,  Nov.  25,  1622  (Le  Plat,  Monu- 
ment. Concil.  Trident.  II.  146). 

3  Adriani  PP.  VI.  Breve  ad  Frid.  Saxon.  (Lutheri  Opp.  T.  II.  fol.  542b.— Le  Plat, 
11.134.) 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY         61 

yet  were  not  personally  interested  in  upholding  the  gigantic 
but  decaying  structure  of  sacerdotalism.  Of  these  men 
Erasmus  may  be  taken  as  the  representative.  His  opinion 
on  all  the  questions  of  the  day  was  too  eagerly  desired  for 
him  to  escape  the  necessity  of  pronouncing  his  verdict  on 
the  innovation  portended  by  the  one  or  two  marriages 
which  took  place  near  Wittenberg  in  1521,  and  accordingly, 
in  1522,  from  his  retreat  in  Basle  he  issued  a  short  disserta- 
tion on  the  subject,  which,  although  addressed  merely  to 
Bishop  Christopher  of  that  city,  was  evidently  intended 
for  a  European  audience.  In  this  essay,  after  sketching 
the  rise  of  celibacy  and  attributing  it  to  the  purity  and 
fervour  of  the  early  Christians,  he  proceeds  to  depict  the 
altered  condition  of  the  Church.  Among  the  innumerable 
multitude  of  priests  who  crowd  the  monasteries,  the 
chapters,  and  the  parishes,  he  declares  that  there  are  few 
indeed  whose  lives  are  pure,  even  as  respects  open  and 
avowed  concubinage,  without  penetrating  into  the  mys- 
teries of  secret  intrigue.  As,  therefore,  there  is  no  Scrip- 
tural injunction  of  cehbacy,  he  concludes  that,  however 
desirable  it  might  be  to  have  ministers  free  from  the  cares 
of  marriage  and  devoting  themselves  solely  to  the  service 
of  God,  yet,  since  it  seems  impossible  to  conquer  the 
rebeUious  flesh,  it  would  be  better  to  allow  those  who 
cannot  control  themselves  to  have  wives  with  whom  they 
could  live  in  virtuous  peace,  bringing  up  their  children  in 
the  fear  of  God,  and  earning  the  respect  of  their  flocks. 
No  more  startling  evidence,  indeed,  of  the  demoralisation 
of  the  period  could  be  given  than  the  cautious  fear  which 
Erasmus  expresses  lest  such  a  change  should  be  opposed 
by  the  episcopal  officials,  who  would  object  to  the  diminu- 
tion of  their  unhallowed  gains  levied  on  the  concubines  of 
the  clergy.^ 

1  Erasmi  Lib.  xxxi.  Epist.  43. 

Notwithstanding  the  sarcasm,  popularly  attributed  to  Erasmus,  on  the  occasion 
of  Luther's  union  with  Catharine  von  Bora— that  the  Reformation  had  turned  out  to 


62  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

When  such  was  the  condition  of  ecclesiastical  morality, 
and  such  were  the  opinions  of  all  except  those  directly 
interested  in  upholding  the  old  order  of  things,  it  is  no 
wonder  if  the  people  were  disposed  to  look  with  favour  on 
the  marriage  of  their  pastors,  and  if  the  rejection  of  celibacy 
gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the  cause  of  Lutheranism.  In  the 
early  days  of  all  sects,  it  is  only  those  of  ardent  faith  and 
pure  zeal  who  are  likely  to  embrace  a  new  belief,  with  all 
the  attendant  risks  of  persecution  and  contumely.  The 
laxity  of  life  allowed  to  the  Catholic  clergy  would  attract  to 
its  ranks  and  retain  those  whose  aim  was  sensual  indulgence. 
Thus  necessarily  the  reformers  who  married  would  present 
for  contrast  regular  and  chaste  lives  and  well-ordered 
households,  purified  by  the  dread  of  the  ever-impending 
troubles  to  which  the  accident  of  a  day  might  at  any  time 
expose  them.  The  comparison  thus  was  in  every  way 
favourable  to  the  new  ideas,  and  they  flourished  accord- 
ingly. 

Nor,  perhaps,  were  the  worldly  inducements  to  which 
I  have  before  alluded  less  powerful  in  their  own  way  in 
advancing  the  cause.  Shortly  before  Luther's  marriage, 
whatever  influence  was  derivable  from  an  aristocratic 
example  was  obtained  when  the  Baron  of  Heydeck,  a 
knight  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  renounced  his  vows  and 
publicly  espoused  a  nun  of  Ligny.^     This  may  possibly 

be  a  comedy,  seeing  that  it  resulted  in  a  marriage — he  continued  to  raise  his  voice 
in  favour  of  abolishing  the  rule  of  celibacy.  Thus  he  writes,  in  October  1525, 
"  Vehementer  laudo  coelibatum,  sed  ut  nunc  habet  sacerdotum  ac  monachorum  vita, 
praesertim  apud  Germanos,  prsetaret  indulgeri  remedium  matrimonii "  (Lib.  xviii. 
Epist.  9).  And  again,  in  1526,  "  Ego  nee  sacerdotibus  permitto  conjugium,  nee 
monachis  relaxo  vota,  ne  id  fiat  ex  auctoritate  Pontificum,  ad  sedificationem  ecclesiae 
non  ad  destructionem.  ...  In  primis  optandum  esset  sacerdotes  et  monachos  casti- 
tatem  ac  coelestem  vitam  amplecti.  Nunc  rebus  adeo  contaminatis,  fortasse  levius 
malum  erat  eligendum  "  (Lib.  xviii.  Epist.  4). 

Yet,  in  his  "  Liber  de  Amabili  Ecclesiae  Concordia,"  written  in  1533  in  the  hope 
of  reuniting  the  severed  Church,  while  awaiting  the  promised  general  council  which 
was  to  reconcile  all  things,  Erasmus  did  not  hesitate  to  give  utterance  to  the  opinion 
that  those  who  fell  away  in  heresy  or  even  schism  were  worse  than  those  who  lived 
impurely  in  the  true  faith. 

1  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1525. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        63 

have  encouraged  his  superior,  Albert  of  Brandenburg, 
Grand  Master  of  the  Order,  to  execute  his  remarkably  suc- 
cessful coup  d'etat,  in  changing  his  religion  and  seizing  the 
estates  of  the  order,  thus  practically  founding  the  state 
which  chance  and  talent  have  exalted  until  it  has  been  able 
to  realise  the  dream  of  a  united  Germany.  The  liberty 
of  marriage  which  he  thus  assumed  was  soon  turned  to 
account  in  his  advantageous  alliance  with  Frederic,  King 
of  Denmark,  whose  daughter  Dorothea  he  espoused,  the 
Bishop  of  Szamland  officiating  as  his  proxy,  and  the  actual 
marriage  being  celebrated  14  June,  1526/ 

Luther  may  reasonably  be  held  excusable  for  counselling 
and  aiding  a  transaction  which  lent  such  incalculable 
strength  to  the  struggling  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  he  endeavoured  to  follow  it 
up  with  another  of  a  similar  character.  The  nephew  of 
the  Duke  of  Prussia,  also  named  Albert  of  Brandenburg, 
occupied  the  highest  place  in  the  Teutonic  hierarchy,  as 
Archbishop  both  of  Mainz  and  Magdeburg,  in  the  latter 
of  which  powerful  sees  the  Lutheran  heresies  had  taken 
deep  root.  Luther  sought  to  induce  the  archbishop  to 
follow  his  uncle's  example ;  to  take  possession  in  his  own 
right  of  the  Magdeburg  territories,  and  to  transmit  them 
to  the  posterity  with  which  Heaven  could  not  fail  to  bless 
his  prospective  marriage — a  scheme  which  met  the  warm 
approbation  of  the  leading  nobles  of  the  diocese.  Albert 
thought  seriously  of  the  project,  especially  as  the  Peasants' 
War  then  raging  was  directed  particularly  against  the 
lands  of  the  Church,  but  he  finally  abandoned  it,  and  his 
flock  had  to  work  out  their  reformation  without  his  assis- 
tance.^ 

Perhaps  some  plans  of  territorial  aggrandisement  may 

1  Spalatin.  Annal..  ann.  1526. 

2  Henke  Append,  ad  Calixt.  p.  595. — Serrarii  Kerum  Mogunt.  Lib.  v.  (Script. 
Rer.  Mogunt.  I.  831,  839).  As  Albert,  though  Primate  of  Germany,  was  only  thirty- 
five  or  six  years  of  age,  the  proposition  was  not  an  unreasonable  one. 


64  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

have  stimulated  the  zeal  of  the  Count  of  Embden,  who 
boasted  that  he  had  assisted  and  encouraged  the  marriage 
of  no  fewer  than  five  hundred  monks  and  nuns  ;^  yet  the 
process  of  secularising  the  monastic  foundations  was  in 
many  places  by  no  means  sudden  or  violent.  Thus,  when 
the  Abbot  of  Ilgenthal  in  Saxony  died  in  1526,  the  Elector 
John  simply  forbade  the  election  of  a  successor,  and  placed 
the  abbey  in  charge  of  a  prefect,  while  the  remaining 
monks  were  liberally  supplied  until  they  one  after  another 
died  out  f  and  in  1529,  when  Philip,  Count  of  Waldeck, 
took  possession  of  the  ancient  monastery  of  Hainscheidt, 
he  caused  all  the  monks  to  be  supported  during  life.^ 

Through  all  this  period  the  hope  had  never  been 
abandoned  of  such  an  arrangement  as  would  prevent  an 
irrevocable  separation  in  the  Church.  Moderate  and 
temperate  men  on  both  sides  were  ready  to  make  such 
concessions  of  form  as  would  enable  Christendom  to  re- 
main united,  as  the  great  vital  truths  on  which  all  were 
agreed  so  far  outweighed  the  points  of  divergence. 
Whether  these  hopes  were  well  or  ill  founded  was  to  be 
determined  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  to  which,  in  June 
1530,  both  parties  were  summoned  for  the  purpose  of 
submitting  their  differences  to  the  Emperor.  Charles 
came  to  Germany  in  the  full  flush  of  his  recent  extraor- 
dinary triumphs,  the  most  powerful  prince  since  the  days 
of  Charlemagne.  Europe  was  at  length  at  peace,  even  the 
Turk  only  looming  in  the  East  as  a  probable,  not  as  an 
existing,  enemy.  But  Charles,  newly  crowned  at  Bologna, 
came  ostensibly  as  the  steadfast  ally  of  the  Pope,  and 
Clement  VII.  had  not  the  slightest  intention  of  renouncing 
the  traditional  and  imprescriptible  rights  of  the  Holy  See. 
The  CathoUc  princes  of  Germany,  too,  had  their  grounds 

1  Spalatin.  Annal.  ann.  1526. 

2  Thammii  Chron.  Coldicens. 

3  Chron.  Waldeccense  {Hahnii  Collect.  Monument.  I.  851). 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        65 

of  private  quarrel  with  their  Protestant  peers,  and,  holding 
an  unquestioned  majority,  were  not  disposed  to  abandon 
their  position.  The  Protestant  princes,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  firm  in  their  new-found  faith,  and,  however  disposed 
to  avert  the  threatened  storm  by  the  sacrifice  of  non- 
essentials, their  convictions  were  too  strong  for  them  to 
retrace  the  steps  which  they  had  taken  during  so  many 
long  and  weary  years.  It  is  evident  that,  with  such 
materials  on  either  side,  no  reunion  was  probable ;  and, 
even  had  an  accommodation  on  points  of  doctrine  been 
possible,  there  was  one  subject  which  scarcely  seemed  to 
admit  of  satisfactory  compromise.  In  the  states  of  the 
reform  the  downfall  of  monachism  had  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  temporal  powers  large  bodies  of  sequestrated  abbey 
lands.  To  the  Catholic  it  was  sacrilege  to  leave  these  in 
the  hands  of  the  spoiler  ;  the  Protestant  would  not  willingly 
give  up  the  spoil. 

The  contest  was  opened  by  the  Protestants  submitting 
a  statement  of  their  belief,  divided  into  two  parts,  the  one 
devoted  to  points  of  faith,  the  other  to  matters  of  practice. 
Prepared  principally  by  Melanchthon,  it  presents  their 
tenets  in  the  mildest  and  least  objectionable  form,  and 
becoming  the  recognised  standard  of  their  creed,  it  has 
attained  a  world-wide  renown  under  the  name  of  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg.  The  questions  of  celibacy  and 
monastic  vows  were  ably  and  temperately  argued;  their 
post-scriptural  origin  was  shown,  and  the  reasons  which 
induced  the  reformers  to  reject  them  were  placed  in  a  light 
as  little  offensive  as  possible.^  At  first  a  counter-state- 
ment was  anticipated  from  the  Catholics,  and  negotiations 
were  expected  to  be  carried  on  by  a  comparison  of  the  two, 
but  they  took  higher  ground,  and  contented  themselves  with 

1  Confess.  Augustanas  P.  ii.  Art.  ii. ,  vi. 

In  his  Apology  for  the  Augsburg  Confession,  however,  even  the  coldness  of 
Melanchthon  is  warmed  in  describing  the  hideous  licentiousness  caused  by  the  law 
of  celibacy  (Lutheri  Opp.  T.  IV.  p.  252-3). 

VOL.  II.  E 


66  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

drawing  up  a  refutation  of  the  Confession.  The  Emperor 
was  firm.  His  aspirations  for  the  universal  monarchy, 
which  ever  eluded  his  grasp,  did  not  comport  with 
encouraging  independence  of  thought  and  freedom  of 
religious  belief.  In  his  theory,  uniformity  of  religion  was 
a  necessary  element  of  the  pohtical  system  which  was  to 
make  him  sovereign  of  Europe,  and  he  would  listen  to  no 
compromise.  He  was  inclined  to  summary  measures,  but 
the  Catholic  princes  were  hardly  prepared  for  the  conse- 
quences of  an  immediate  rupture,  and,  after  a  threatening 
interval,  another  effort  was  made  to  effect  a  reconciliation. 
Conferences  between  the  leading  theologians  on  both  sides 
took  place,  and  the  Lutherans,  warned  of  their  danger, 
were  more  disposed  than  ever  to  make  concessions  and  to 
accept  such  terms  as  the  stronger  party  were  willing  to 
offer  them.  At  length,  on  the  8th  of  September,  the  draft 
of  a  proposed  plan  of  accord  was  laid  before  the  Diet.  In 
this  the  points  in  dispute  were  referred  to  that  future 
(Ecumenic  council  which  had  so  long  been  demanded  as 
the  panacea  for  all  ecclesiastical  ills,  and  which,  after  more 
than  thirty  years  of  continued  expectation,  was  destined  to 
fail  so  miserably  in  reconciling  difficulties.  Such  monas- 
teries as  had  not  been  destroyed  were  to  be  maintained  in 
the  exercise  of  the  customary  rites  and  observances  of  reU- 
gion.  Abbots  and  communities  who  had  been  ejected  were 
to  be  allowed  to  return  ;  and  all  religious  houses  which  had 
been  emptied  of  their  occupants  were  to  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  officers  appointed  by  the  Emperor,  who  were  to 
administer  their  possessions  until  the  future  council  should 
decide  upon  all  the  points  relating  to  monachism ;  the 
Protestants  thus  relieving  themselves  of  the  accusation 
that  they  were  actuated  by  motives  of  worldly  gain. 
Similar  proposals  were  made  with  regard  to  communion  in 
the  two  elements  and  clerical  marriage.  These  were  left 
as  open  questions  for  the  council  to  settle,  while  a  phrase 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        67 

of  doubtful  import  subjected  them  in  the  meantime  to  the 
governments  of  the  several  states.^  The  concessions  in 
this  project,  however,  though  they  might  suit  the  views  of 
the  temperate  doctors  and  princes  in  Germany,  and  though 
even  the  Roman  Curia  might  be  willing  to  grant  them  in 
order  to  save  its  threatened  temporal  power  over  the 
Teutonic  states,  did  not  suit  the  policy  of  Charles,  who 
regarded  the  Church  as  simply  one  of  the  instruments  with 
which  he  was  to  build  up  his  universal  empire.^  It  was 
not  difficult  for  him,  therefore,  to  bring  to  naught  all  such 
schemes  of  conciliation.  The  restoration  of  all  abbots  and 
monks  was  ordered  ;  restitution  of  Church  lands  was  com- 
manded, or  their  delivery  to  the  Emperor,  to  be  held  until 
the  assembling  of  the  future  council ;  and  when  the  Diet 
adjourned,  Charles  issued  a  decree  enjoining  on  all  married 
priests  to  abstain  from  their  wives,  to  eject  them,  and  to 
seek  absolution  from  their  ordinaries.^ 

The  threatening  aspect  of  affairs  warned  the  Protestant 
princes  that  no  time  was  to  be  lost  in  making  provision  for 
mutual  defence,  and  ere  the  year  was  out  the  famous 
League  of  Schmalkalden  enabled  them  to  present  a  united 
front  to  the  powers  which  they  had  virtually  defied.  Into 
the  political  history  of  that  eventful  time  it  is  not  my 
province  to  enter.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  were  able  to 
maintain  their  position,  and  in  their  own  states  to  oppose 
the  reactionary  movement  which  at  times  seemed  to  be 
on  the  point  of  destroying  all  that  had  been  accomplished. 

In  this  their  task  was  complicated  by  the  extravagances 
of  those  whose  enthusiasm,  unbalanced  by  reason,  carried 
them  beyond  restraint.  If  Luther  had  found  it  no  easy 
task  to  break  the  chains  which  for  so  many  ages  had  kept 

1  Deliberat.  de  Concordia  etc.  c.  iii.,  v.  (Goldast  I.  609). 

2  See  Letter  of  Bergenroth  to  Komilly,  from   Simancas,  June  14,  1863  (Cart- 
wright's  Memoir  of  Bergenroth,  London,  1870,  p.  124). 

3  Sentent.  Caroli  V.  §  5  (Ibid.  I.   510).— Rescript.   Caroli  V.  §  5  (Ibid.   III.  512). 
Henke,  Append,  ad  Calixt.  pp.  595-6. 


68  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

in  check  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  he  discovered  that  it  was 
impossible  to   control  that  spirit  once  let  loose ;  and  the 
wild  excesses  of  Anabaptism  were  at  once  the  exaggeration 
and  the  opprobrium  of  Lutheranism.     Originally  earnest 
and  self-denying,  the  primitive  Anabaptists  had  captivated 
the   fiery  soul   of  Carlostadt,   while   Luther  was    in   his 
Patmos  of  Wartburg.     The  ensuing  development  was  in 
some  sort  a  resuscitation  of  the   Brethren  of  the    Free 
Spirit,   remnants   of  whom   doubtless    existed    in    many 
hidden  quarters.     The  inner  light  was   the  guide  which 
every  man  should  follow,  and  this  was  to  result  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  wherein  all  should  be  equal  and  live  in 
brotherly  affection,  without  subjection  to  government  of 
any  kind.     These   alluring   dreams   spread   through   the 
populations  with  amazing  rapidity,  calling  forth  the  severest 
repression  by  the  authorities,  who  recognised  in  them  the 
danger  not  only  to  rehgion,  but  to  the  whole  social  organi- 
sation.    The   sectaries   manifested   the   sincerity  of  their 
convictions  by  the  steadfast  cheerfulness  v^dth  which  they 
endured  imprisonment,  torture,  and  the  stake  ;  but  this 
ardent  fanaticism  also  found  expression  in  lawless  hcentious- 
ness  among  those  who  mistook  the  impulses  of  the  flesh 
for  the  dictates  of  the  spirit.     There  is  doubtless  much 
exaggeration  in  the  description  of  the  igneuvi  baptisma  by 
which  in  Munster  John  Mathison  encouraged  promiscuous 
licence  among  the  elect,  but  the  history  of  mystic  ardour 
furnishes  too  many  examples  of  such  aberrations  for  us  to 
question  the  probability  of  their  occurrence  among  such  an 
assemblage  of  disordered  and  disorderly  minds.^ 

Luther,  moreover,  was  quite  as  resolute  in  setting  limits 
to  his  movement  as  Rome  had  been  in  forbidding  all 
progress,  and  the  Anabaptists  were  to  him  enemies  as 
detestable  as  Catholics.  The  Protestant  princes,  more- 
ls Kerssenbroch  Eell.  Anabaptist,  cap.  15,  31,— Janssen,  Geschichteder  Deutschen 
Volkes.  III.,  99  sqq.  (Ed.  1887.) 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        69 

over,  had  too  much  worldly  wisdom  to  imperil  their 
dangerous  career  by  any  alliance  with  fanatics  whose 
extravagances  provoked  opposition  so  general.  The  cause 
of  the  Reformation,  therefore,  although  it  suffered  no  little 
from  so  portentous  an  illustration  of  the  dangers  resulting 
from  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  barriers,  escaped  all 
contamination  in  itself,  and  its  leaders  pursued  their  course 
undeviatingly. 

Meanwhile  the  League  of  Schmalkalden  accomplished 
its  purpose.  Henry  VIII.  and  Francis  I.  were  eager  to 
seize  the  opportunity  of  encouraging  dissension  in  the 
empire.  The  Turk  became  more  menacing  than  ever. 
Charles,  always  ready  to  yield  for  a  time  when  opposition 
was  impolitic,  gracefully  abandoned  the  position  assumed 
at  Augsburg  ;  and  the  negotiations  of  Schweinfurth  and 
Niirriberg  resulted  in  the  decree  of  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon  in 
1532,  by  which,  until  the  assembling  of  the  future  council, 
all  religious  disturbances  were  prohibited,  and  the  imperial 
chamber  was  commanded  to  undertake  no,  prosecutions  on 
account  of  heresy.  Toleration  was  thus  practically  estab- 
lished for  the  moment,  but  the  abbots  and  monks  who  had 
been  ejected,  and  who  had  been  anticipating  their  restora- 
tion, became  naturally  restive.  Charles  cunningly  sent 
from  Italy  full  powers  to  the  chamber  to  decide  as  to  what 
causes  arose  from  religious  disputes,  and  what  were  simply 
civil  or  criminal.  Thus  entrusted  with  the  interpretation 
of  the  Ratisbon  decree,  the  chamber  assumed  that  claims 
on  Church  lands  were  not  included  in  the  forbidden  class, 
while  old  edicts  prohibiting  the  observances  of  Lutheranism 
brought  all  religious  questions  within  the  scope  of  criminal 
law.  The  promised  toleration  was  thus  practically  denied, 
but,  fortunately  for  the  Protestants,  Ferdinand  was 
anxiously  negotiating  for  their  recognition  of  his  dignity 
as  King  of  the  Romans,  and  by  the  Transaction  of  Cadam 


70  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

in  1533  he  purchased  the  coveted  homage  by  accepting 
their  construction  of  the  edict  of  Ratisbon. 

Still  the  Protestants  complained  of  persecution  and 
the  CathoHcs  of  proselytism.  The  ensuing  fifteen  years 
were  filled  with  a  series  of  bootless  negotiations,  pre- 
tended settlements,  quarrels,  recriminations,  and  mutual 
encroachments,  which  year  after  year  occupied  the  succes- 
sive Diets,  and  kept  Germany  constantly  trembling  on 
the  verge  of  a  desolating  civil  war.  It  would  be  useless 
to  disturb  the  dust  that  covers  these  forgotten  transac- 
tions, which  can  teach  us  nothing  save  that  the  Protes- 
tants still  refused  to  recognise  that  the  schism  was  past 
human  power  to  heal ;  that  Rome,  recovering  from  her 
temporary  hesitation,  would  not  abate  one  jot  of  her  pre- 
tensions to  save  her  supremacy  over  half  of  Christendom  ;  ^ 
and  that  Charles,  as  a  wily  politician,  was  always  ready  in 
adversity  to  abandon  with  a  good  grace  that  which  he  had 
arrogantly  seized  in  prosperity.^  How  eager,  indeed, 
were  the  Protestants  to  effect  some  compromise  which 
should  relieve  them  from  their  exceptional  position  is 
strikingly  manifest  in  the  Articles  which  Melanchthon 
and  his  friends  in  1535  submitted  to  Francis  I.,  after  the 
Sorbonne  had  refused  to  enter  into  a  disputation  or  con- 
ference with  them.  In  this  document  all  non-essentials 
were  abandoned ;  doctrinal  dissidences  were  skilfully 
evaded,  and  stress  only  was  laid  upon  such  regulations  as 
should  remove  the   external  corruption  of  the  Church. 

1  How  little  the  situation  was  comprehended  is  amusingly  shown  in  a  letter  from 
an  enlightened  and  liberal  prelate,  Johann  Schmidt,  Bishop  of  Vienna,  to  Ferdinand, 
in  1540,  concerning  some  proposed  negotiations  then  on  foot  for  a  reconciliation 
between  the  Churches.  He  lays  down  as  a  condition  precedent  to  reunion  that  all 
the  Church  lands  confiscated  by  the  Protestants  shall  be  restored,  and  the 
monastic  orders  re-established.  The  mesne  profits,  he  admits,  cannot  be  collected, 
but  some  composition  for  them  should  be  made. — Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil. 
Trident.  II.  649. 

2  An  elaborate  series  of  documents  relating  to  these  transactions  may  be  found 
in  Goldast.  Constit.  Imp.  I.  511,  III.  172-235.  Also  in  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil. 
Trident.  Vol.  II. 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        71 

Melanchthon  proposed  that  the  monastic  orders  should  be 
continued,  but  that  the  vows  should  not  be  perpetual,  so 
that  religion  might  not  be  disgraced  by  the  excesses  of 
those  who  had  mistaken  their  vocation.  So,  as  regards 
priestly  celibacy,  he  proposed  that,  as  human  nature 
rendered  it  impossible  to  supply  the  multitude  of  parishes 
with  men  able  to  live  in  continence,  those  who  could  not 
preserve  their  purity  should  be  allowed  to  marry ;  while, 
to  prevent  the  dilapidation  of  Church  property,  the  higher 
positions  should  be  reserved  to  men  of  mature  age  who 
could  lead  a  single  life/  The  Sorbonne,  in  reply,  con- 
descended to  no  argument,  but  contented  itself  with 
asserting  that  the  Protestants  desired  the  subversion  of 
all  religion,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Melanchthon  had 
the  satisfaction  of  being  proclaimed  a  traitor  by  the 
Germans. 

In  all  this  the  only  point  which  possesses  special 
interest  for  us  is  another  authoritative  attempt  at  recon- 
ciling the  irreconcilable  which  occurred  in  1540  and  1541. 
It  was  suggested  that  all  parties  should  unite  on  the 
basis  of  sacerdotal  marriage,  the  use  of  the  cup  by  the 
laity,  and  the  rejection  of  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See. 
Matters  reached  such  a  point  that  the  legate  Morone 
reported,  in  July  1540,  that  he  was  ready  to  run  away  in 
despair ;  the  three  great  ecclesiastical  electors  and  all  the 
episcopate  except  the  Bishop  of  Trent,  and  the  princes 
except  the  Dukes  of  Bavaria  and  Brunswick,  were  in 
favour  of  it,  while  France  would  undoubtedly  follow  the 
example,  while  he  distrusted  the  assurances  of  Charles 
and  King  Ferdinand  that  they  would  not  abandon  the 
papacy.^  If  Charles  had  only  had  Germany  in  view,  he 
might  well  have  been  tempted  to  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  Henry  VIII.,  and  found  an  independent  Church  under 

1  Artie.  Melanch.  ad  Regem  Francise,  No.  x.,  xi.  (Le  Plat,  op.  cit.  II.  785-7.) 

2  Dittrich,  Nunciaturberichte  Giovanni  Morones,  pp.  73,  76-9. — Lammer,  Monu- 
raenta  Vaticana,  Sa?culi  XVI.  pp.  288-9. 


72  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

his  supremacy,  but  his  interests  in  Spain  and  Italy  bound 
him  to  the  papacy,  and  he  was  sincere  in  his  pledges  to 
Morone.     He  was  anxious,  however,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
rehgious  strife,  and  after  a  conference  between  Melanch- 
thon  and  Dr.  Eck  at  Worms,  Charles  himself  presented 
to  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon  in  1541  a  statement  of  the  ques- 
tions in  dispute,  with  propositions  for  mutual  concession 
and  compromise.      In  the  course  of  this  he  reviewed  the 
practice  of  the  Church   in  various   ages  with  regard   to 
sacerdotal  celibacy,  admitting  that  the  enforcement  of  it 
was  not  in  accordance  with  the  ancient  canons,  and  indicat- 
ing a  willingness  to  see  it  abrogated.^      The  Protestants, 
who  were  ready  to  make  many  sacrifices  for  peace,  hailed 
this  intimation   with   triumph,    stoutly   insisting   on   the 
repeal  of  the  obnoxious  rule,  which   they  stigmatised  as 
unjust   and   pernicious.^      So   nearly   did  the   parties    at 
length   approach   each  other,  that  there  appeared   every 
reason  to  anticipate  a  successful  result  to  the  effort,  when 
Paul  III.  interfered  and  pronounced  all  the  proceedings 
null  and  void,  as  the  Church  alone  had  power  to  regulate 
its  internal   affairs.      The   expectations  excited   by  these 
negotiations  naturally  stimulated  the  desire  of  the  people 
for  a  change  in  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  the  next 
year  we  find  Paul  III.  obliged  to  exhort  the  Bishop  of 
Merseberg,  under  threats  of  ejection,  to  resist  the  clamours 
of  his  subjects,  who  demanded  the  abrogation  of  priestly 
celibacy  and  the  use  of  the  cup  for  the  laity.    The  Council 
of  Trent,   he   said,   had    been    called   to   consider   these 
matters,  and  immediate  change  was   especially   inadmis- 
sible.^ 

1  Lib.  ad  Eationem  Concord,  ineundam  Art.  xxii.  §  13  (Goldast.  II.  199). 

2  Respons.  Protestant.  Art.  x.  §  3  (Ibid.  II.  206).  This  was  still  more  strongly 
insisted  on  in  a  paper  subsequently  drawn  up  by  Bucer  and  presented  in  the  name 
of  the  Protestants. — Respons.  Protestant,  c.  11-14  (Ibid.  p.  213). 

3  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  III.  152-3. 

Pope  Paul  III.  was  created  Cardinal  by  Pope  Alexander  VI.  His  name  was 
Alexander  Farnese,  and,  owing  to  his  dissipated  habits  and  to  the  fact  that  his  pro- 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        73 

Charles  had  long  recognised  that  the  perpetual  menace 
of   a  powerful  confederation   such    as   the   Schmalkaldic 
League,  entertaining  constant  relations  with  the  external 
enemies  of  the  empire,  was  incompatible  with  the  peace 
of  Germany  and  with  an  imperial  power  such  as  he  was 
resolved  to  wield.     The  time  at  last  came  for  the  develop- 
ment of  his  plans.      The  skill  of  Alva  and  the  treachery 
of  Maurice  of  Saxony  were  crowned  with  success.     The 
battle  of  Muhlberg  broke  the  power  of  the  Protestants 
utterly,  and  laid  them  helpless  at  his  feet.     Yet  the  pro- 
gress of  the  new  ideas  had  already  placed  them  beyond  the 
control  of  even  the  triumphant  Charles,  though  he  had 
the  Elector   of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  in 
his    dungeons.       When,    at  the    Diet   of   Augsburg    in 
1548,  he  proposed    the    curious  arrangement    known  as 
the  Interim,  by  which  he  hoped  to  keep  matters  quiet 
until  the  final  verdict  of  that  (Ecumenic  council  which 
constantly  vanished  in  the  distance,  he  felt  it  necessary 
to  permit  all  married  priests  to  retain  their  wives  until 
the   question   should    be  decided  by  the  future  council. 
A  faint   expression  of  a  preference  for    celibacy,    more- 
over, was  significant  both  in  what  it  said  and  what  it  left 
unsaid.^ 

The  Interim,  of  course,  satisfied  neither  party.     The 

motion  was  obtained  for  him  by  his  sister  Giulia  Orsini  (wee  Farnese),  one  of  Pope 
Alexander's  mistresses,  he  was  known  as  "the  Cardinal  of  the  Petticoat  " — Cardinale 
della  Gonella.  A  son  of  Paul  III.,  Pietro  Ludovico  Farnese,  born  1490,  became  Duke 
of  Parma.  He  was  assassinated  in  1547.  One  of  his  sons,  born  1520,  was  named 
Alexander,  and  was  created  a  Cardinal  by  his  grandfather,  Paul  III. 

1  Et  quanquam  cum  Apostolo  sentiendum  eum  qui  ccelebs  est  curare  quae  sunt 
Domini,  etc.  (I.  Cor.  vii.)  eoque  magis  optandura  multos  inveniri  clericos  qui  cum 
ccelibes  sint  vere  etiam  contineant,  tamen  quum  multi  qui  ministerii  ecclesiastici 
functiones  tenent,  jam  multis  in  locis  duxerint  uxores,  quas  a  se  dimittere  nolint ; 
super  ea  re  generalis  concilii  sententia  expectetur,  cum  alioqui  mutatio  in  ea  re,  ut 
nunc  sunt  tempora,  sine  gravi  rerum  perturbatione  nunc  fieri  non  possit. — Interim 
cap.  XXVI.  §  17. 

Charles  must  have  entertained  the  expectation  that  a  change  would  be  authorised 
by  the  Council  of  Trent,  or  prudence  would  have  dictated  the  policy  of  not  leaving 
the  matter  open  with  the  consciousness  that  the  difficulty  could  only  become  daily 
greater  by  tolerance. 


74  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Catholics  regarded  it  as  an  unauthorised  reformation,  the 
Protestants  as  disguised  Popery.  Charles,  however,  in 
the  plenitude  of  his  power,  obliged  many  of  the  Lutheran 
states  to  accept  it ;  while,  as  regards  the  Catholics,  he 
was  perhaps  not  sorry  to  show  the  Pope  that  he  too,  like 
Henry  VIII.,  could  regulate  the  consciences  of  his  subjects 
and  prescribe  their  religious  faith.  He  had  broken  with 
Paul  III. ;  the  Council  of  Trent,  against  his  wishes,  had 
been  removed  to  Bologna  on  a  frivolous  pretext ;  and  a 
schism  like  that  of  England  was  apparently  again  impend- 
ing. At  the  least,  Charles  might  not  unreasonably  desire 
to  manifest  that  at  last  he  was  independent  of  that  papal 
power  with  which  mutual  necessities  had  so  long  enforced 
the  closest  relations,  and  to  prove  that  deference  to  his 
wishes  was  henceforth  to  be  the  price  of  his  all-important 
support.  He  demanded  that  legates  should  be  sent  to 
Germany  armed  with  extraordinary  powers,  among  which 
was  included  authority  to  grant  dispensations  to  married 
priests.  Paul  III.  referred  the  request  to  the  Sacred 
College,  and  to  the  council  then  sitting  at  Bologna,  and 
it  was  unanimously  replied  that  it  should  be  granted,  with 
the  limitation  that  monks  should  not  be  included,  and 
that  priests  thus  permitted  to  retain  their  wives  should 
not  exercise  their  functions  or  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their 
benefices.^  That  Paul  forthwith  despatched  three  nuncios 
entrusted  with  authority  to  do  this  shows  not  only  the 
disposition  which  then  existed  to  relax  the  rigour  of  the 
canons  respecting  celibacy,  but  also  the  importance  which  the 
question  had  assumed  in  the  religious  disputes  of  the  time,^ 

1  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  IV.  19-25. 

2  Pallavicin,  Storia  del  Concilio  di  Trento,  Lib.  xii.  c.  8.  Zaccaria  (Nuova 
Giustificaz.  pp.  145,  266),  while  admitting  the  fact,  states  that  the  original  of  this 
document  has  been  sought  for  in  vain,  though  it  had  long  before  been  published 
by  Dom  Martene  (Ampliss.  Collect.  VIII.  1203).  In  appointing,  however,  Jodocus, 
Bishop  of  Lubec,  as  a  substitute  to  exercise  their  powers,  the  legates  require  that 
priests  thus  restored  shall  abandon  their  wives — a  condition  not  expressed  in  the 
original  bull  (Ibid.  p.  1211). 

Both  from  this  and  from  the  language  of  the  Interim  it  appears  that  even  the 


THE  REFORMATION  IN  GERMANY        75 

though  an  absolute  refusal  was  soon  afterwards  returned 
to  the  request  of  a  German  prince  (supposed  to  be  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria)  requesting  for  his  subjects  the  use  of  the 
cup,  priestly  marriage,  and  the  relaxation  of  the  obligation 
of  fasting.^ 

Temporary  expedients  and  compromises  such  as  these 
are  interesting  merely  as  they  mark  the  progress  of  opinion. 
Paltry  makeshifts  to  elude  the  decision  of  that  which  had 
to  be  decided,  they  exercised  little  real  influence  on  the 
history  of  the  time.  It  is  true  that  w^hen  Charles,  in  1551, 
at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  issued  a  call  for  the  reassembling 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  he  confirmed  the  Interim  until 
that  council  should  decide  all  unsettled  questions,^  yet 
this  confirmation  was  destined  to  be  effective  for  a  period 
ludicrously  brief.  A  fresh  treason  of  Maurice  of  Saxony 
undid  all  that  his  former  plotting  had  accomplished ;  and, 
while  Henry  II.  was  winning  at  the  expense  of  the  empire 
the  delusive  title  of  Conqueror,  Charles  found  himself 
reduced  to  the  hard  necessity  of  restoring  all  that  his 
crooked  policy  had  for  so  many  years  been  devoted  to 
extorting.  The  Transaction  of  Passau,  signed  August  2, 
1552,  gave  full  liberty  of  conscience  to  the  Lutheran 
states,  until  a  national  council  or  diet  should  devise 
means  of  restoring  the  unity  of  the  Church ;  and  in  case 
such  means  could  not  be  agreed  upon,  then  the  rights 
guaranteed  by  the  Transaction  were  granted  in  perpetuity.^ 
If  Charles  was  disposed  to  withdraw  the  concessions  thus 
exacted  of  him,  the  miserable  siege  of  Metz  and  the 
increasing    desire    for    abdication    prevented    him    from 

Catholic  priesthood  had  begun  to  arrogate  for  themselves  the  right  of  marriage.  That 
such  was  the  case  to  a  great  extent  will  be  seen  hereafter. 

It  indicates  the  tendencies  of  the  period  that,  in  his  instructions  to  his  three 
nuncios,  the  Bishops  of  Fano,  Verona,  and  Ferentino,  Paul's  chief  solicitude  was  to 
warn  them  against  allowing  the  dispensations  to  be  sold,  which  would,  he    said 
create  scandal. — Lammer,  Monumenta  Vaticana,  Saeculi  xvi.  p.  395. 

1  Le  Plat,  T.  IV.  p.  27. 

2  Recess,  ann.  1551  c.  10  (Goldast.  II.  341). 

3  Transac.  Pataviens.  Artie,  de  Relig.  (Ibid.  I.  573.) 


76  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

attempting  it ;  and,  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  in  1555,  the 
states  and  cities  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  were  con- 
firmed in  their  right  to  enjoy  the  practices  of  their 
rehgion  in  peace. ^ 

The  long  struggle  thus  was  over.  The  public  law  of 
Germany  at  last  recognised  the  legality  of  the  transactions 
based  upon  the  Reformation,  and  not  the  least  in  impor- 
tance among  those  transactions  were  the  marriages  of  the 
ministers  of  Christ. 

^  Transac.  Pataviens.  Artie,  de  Relig.  (Goldast.  I.  574. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH 

The  abrogation  of  celibacy  in  England  was  a  process  of 
far  more  perplexity  and  intricacy  than  in  any  other  country 
which  adopted  the  Reformation.  Perhaps  this  may  be 
partially  explained  by  the  temperament  of  the  race,  whose 
spirit  of  independence  made  them  quick  to  feel  and  impa- 
tient to  suffer  the  manifold  evils  of  the  sacerdotal  system, 
while  their  reverential  conservatism  rendered  them  less 
disposed  to  adopt  a  radical  cure  than  their  Continental 
neighbours. 

In  no  country  of  Europe  had  the  pretensions  of  the 
papal  power  been  more  resolutely  set  aside.  In  no  country 
had  ecclesiastical  abuses  been  more  earnestly  attacked  or 
more  persistently  held  up  for  popular  odium,  and  the 
applause  which  greeted  all  who  boldly  denounced  the 
shortcomings  of  priest  and  prelate  shows  how  keenly  the 
people  felt  the  evils  to  which  they  were  exposed.  William 
Langlande,  the  monk  of  Malvern,  was  no  heretic,  yet  he 
was  unsparing  in  his  reprobation  of  the  corruptions  of  the 
Church  : 

"  Right  so  out  of  holi  chirche, 
Alle  yveles  springeth, 
There  inparfit  preesthode  is, 
Prechours  and  techeris 


And  prechours  after  silver, 
Executours  and  sodenes, 
Somonours  and  hir  lemmannes  ; 
That  that  with  gile  was  geten, 
Ungraciousliche  is  despended ; 
So  harlotes  and  hores 
Am  holpe  with  swiche  goodes, 


78  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

And  Goddes  folk,  for  defaute  thereof, 
For-faren  and  spillen."  i 

And  he  boldly  prophesied  the    violent  doA\Tifall  of   the 
whole  fabric  : 

"  Right  so,  ye  clerkes, 
For  youre  coveitise,  er  longe, 

Shal  thei  demen  dos  ecclesice,  • 

And  youre  pride  depose. 
Deposuit  potentes  de  sede,  etc. 


Leveth  it  wel  ye  bisshopes 
The  lordshipe  of  your  londes 
For  evere  shul  ye  lese, 
And  lyven  as  levitici"  etc.  2 


But  while  the  people  greeted  these  assaults  with  the 
keenest  pleasure,  they  were  attached  to  the  old  observances, 
and  were  in  no  haste  to  see  the  predictions  of  the  poet 
fulfilled.  A  little  sharp  persecution  was  sufficient  to 
suppress  all  outward  show  of  Lollardry,  and  there  was  no 
chance  in  England  for  the  fierce  revolutionary  enthusiasm 
of  the  Taborites. 

As  the  sixteenth  century  opened,  John  Colet  did  good 
work  in  disturbing  the  stagnation  of  the  schools  by  his 
contempt  for  the  petrified  theological  science  of  the 
schoolmen.  His  endeavour  to  revert  to  the  Scriptures  as 
the  sole  source  of  religious  belief  was  a  step  in  advance, 
while  he  was  unsparing  in  his  denunciations  of  the  corrup- 
tions which  were  as  rife  in  the  English  Church  as  we  have 
seen  them  elsewhere.  Yet  Colet,  though  at  one  time 
taxed  with  heretical  leanings,  kept  carefully  within  the 
pale  of  orthodoxy,  and  seems  never  to  have  entertained 
the  idea  that  the  evils  which  he  deplored  were  to  be 
attacked  save  by  a  renewal  of  the  fruitless  iteration 
of  obsolete  canons.^     Perhaps,    however,  his  friend  and 

1  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman,  Wright's  ed.,  pp.  300,  303. 

2  Ibid.  p.  325. — According  to  David  Buchanan,  Langlande  was  also  author  of  a 
tract,  "Pro  conjugio  sacerdotum." — (Ibid.  Introduction,  p.  x.) 

3  In  a  sermon  before  the  Convocation  of  1512,  Colet  is  very  severe  upon  the  vices 
of  the  Church — "  We  are  troubled  in  these  days  by  heretics — men  mad  with  strange 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  79 

disciple,  Sir  Thomas  More,  is  the  best  example  of  this 
frame  of  mind  in  England's  worthiest  men,  the  besetting 
weakness  of  which  made  the  Enghsh  Reformation  a 
struggle  whose  vicissitudes  can  scarce  be  said  to  have  even 
yet  reached  their  final  development. 

Before  Luther  had  raised  the  standard  of  revolt,  More 
keenly  appreciated  the  derelictions  of  the  Church,  and 
allowed  his  wit  to  satirise  its  vices  with  a  freedom  which 
showed  the  scantiest  respect  for  the  sanctity  claimed  by 
its  hierarchy/  Yet  when  Luther  came  with  his  heresies 
to  sweep  away  all  abuses,  More's  gentle  and  tender  spirit 
was  roused  to  a  vulgarity  of  vituperation  which  earned 
for  him  a  distinguished  place  among  the  foul-mouthed 
polemics  of  the  time,  and  which  is  absolutely  unfit  for 
translation.^     As  regards  ascetic   observances,  before  the 

folly — but  this  heresy  of  theirs  is  not  so  pestilential  and  pernicious  to  us  and  the 
people  as  the  vicious  and  depraved  lives  of  the  clergy  " — and  he  urges  the  prelates  to 
revive  the  ancient  canons,  the  enforcement  of  which  would  purify  the  Church.  (See- 
bohm's  Oxford  Reformers  of  1498,  p.  170.     London,  1867.) 

The  title  of  this  work  seems  to  me  a  misnomer.  Neither  Colet  nor  Erasmus  had 
the  aggressive  spirit  of  martyrdom  which  was  essential  to  the  character  of  a  reformer 
in  those  fierce  times.  They  could  deplore  existing  evils,  but  lacked  all  practical 
boldness  in  applying  remedies,  and  their  influence  is  only  to  be  traced  in  the 
minds  which  they  unwittingly  trained  to  do  work  from  which  they  themselves 
shrank. 

1  Thus  in  his  Epigrams  he  ridicules  the  bishops  as  a  class : 

"  Tam  male  cantasti  possis  ut  episcopus  esse, 
Tam  bene  legisti,  ut  non  tamen  esse  queas. 
Non  satis  esse  putet,  si  quis  vitabit  utrumvis, 
Sed  fieri  si  vis  praesul,  utrumque  cave." 

T.  Mori  Opp.  p.  249.    Francofurti,  1689. 

And  he  addresses  a  parish  priest : 

"  Quid  faciant  f ugiantve  tui,  quo  cernere  possint, 
Vita  potest  claro  pro  speculo  esse  tua. 
Tantum  opus  admonitu  est,  ut  te  intueantur,  et  ut  tu 
Quae  facis,  haec  fugianfc  :  quae  fugis,  haec  faciant." 

Ibid.  p.  247. 
See  also  his  epigrams,   *'In  Posthumum  Episcopum,"  "In  Episcopum  illiteratum," 
"  De  Nautis  ejicientibus  Monachum,"  etc. 

2  Responsio  ad  Lutherum,  passim:  "Pater  frater,  potator  Lutherus,"  seems  to  be 
a  favourite  expression,  but  is  mild  in  comparison  with  others — "novum  inferorum 
Deum,"  "Satanista  Lutherus,"  "pediculoso  fraterculo."  Luther's  friends  are 
"  nebulonum,  potatorum,  scortatorum,  sicariorum,  senatum,"  and  More  winds  up 
his  theological  argument  wjth — "  furiosum  fraterculum  et  latrinarium  nebulonem 


80  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Lutheran  movement  More  seems  to  have  inchned  towards 
condemning  all  practices  that  were  not  in  accordance  with 
human  nature,  though  he  appears  wilhng  to  admit  that 
there  may  be  some  special  sanctity,  though  not  wisdom, 
in  conquering  nature/  After  the  commencement  of  the 
Reformation,  however,  his  views  underwent  a  reaction, 
and  he  not  only  defended  monastic  vows,  but  he  even 
went  so  far  as  to  argue  that  by  the  recent  marriages  of  the 
Saxon  reformers  God  had  manifested  his  signal  displeasure, 
for  in  the  old  law  true  priests  could  be  joined  only  to 
the  chastest  virgins,  while  God  permitted  these  false 
pastors  to  take  to  wife  none  but  pubhc  strumpets.^  If 
he  accused  Luther  of  sweeping  away  the  venerable 
traditions  of  man  and  of  God,^  he  showed  how  con- 
scientious was  this  rigid  conservatism  when  he  laid  his 
head  upon  the  block  in  testimony  for  the  principal  creation 
and  bulwark  of  tradition — the  papal  supremacy. 

A  community  thus  halting  between  an  acute  percep- 
tion of  existing  evils  and  a  resolute  determination  not  to 

cum  suis  furiis  et  furoribus,  cum  suis  merdis  et  stercoribus  cacantem  cacatumque 
relinquere." 

Luther  was  himself  a  master  in  theological  abuse,  but  Mere's  admiring  biographer ^ 
Stapleton,  boasts  that  the  German  was  appalled  at  the  superior  vigour  of  the  English- 
man, and  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  declined  further  controversy — "  magis  mutus 
f actus  est  quam  piscis."  (Stapletoni  Vit.  T.  Mori,  cap.'.iv.)  As  More,  however,  pub- 
lished the  tract  under  the  name  of  William  Rosse,  an  Englishman  who  had  recently- 
died  in  Rome,  Luther's  reticence  is  more  easily  to  be  accounted  for. 

1  In  one  passage  More  describes  his  Utopians  as  considering  virtue  to  consist  in 
living  according  to  nature.  "  Nempe  virtutem  definiunt,  secundum  naturam  vivere ; 
ad  id  siquidem  a  Deo  institutes  esse  nos.  .  .  .  Vitam  ergo  jucundam,  inquiunt,  id  est 
voluptatem,  tanquam  operationum  omnium  finem,  ipsa  nobis  natura  praescribit :  ex  cujus 
prsescripto  vivere,  virtutem  definiunt "  (Utopias  Lib.  ii.  Tit.  de  Peregrinatione).  In 
another  passage,  however,  he  describes  two  sects  or  heresies,  the  one  consisting  of  men 
who  abstained  from  marriage  and  the  use  of  flesh,  the  other  of  those  who  devoted 
themselves  to  labour,  marrying  as  a  duty  and  indulging  in  food  to  increase  their 
strength,  and  says  of  them,  "  Hos  Utopiani  prudentiores,  at  illos  sanctiores  reputant " 
(Ibid.  Tit.  de  Religionibus). 

2  Respons.  ad  Lutherum  Perorat. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  was  written  after  his  friend  Erasmus  had 
publicly  given  in  his  adhesion  to  marriage  as  the  only  remedy  for  sacerdotal  cor- 
ruption. 

3  Ibid.  Lib.  i.  cap.  iv. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  81 

remove  them  was  exactly  in  the  temper  to  render  the 
great  movement  of  the  sixteenth  century  as  disastrous  to 
themselves  as  possible.  How  to  meet  the  inevitable 
under  such  conditions  was  a  problem  which  might  well 
tax  the  acutest  intellect,  and  Wolsey,  whose  fate  it  was 
to  undertake  the  task,  seems  to  have  been  inspired  with 
more  than  his  customary  audacious  ingenuity  in  seeking 
the  solution. 

Wolsey  himself  was  no  ascetic,  as  the  popular  inscrip- 
tion over  the  door  of  his  palace — "  Domus  meretricium 
Domini  Cardinalis  " — sufficiently  attests.  A  visitation  of 
the  religious  houses  undertaken  in  1511  by  Archbishop 
Warham  had  revealed  all  the  old  iniquities,  without  calling 
forth  any  remedy  beyond  an  admonition.^  In  1518, 
Wolsey  himself  had  attempted  a  systematic  reformation 
in  his  diocese  of  York,  and  had  revived  the  ancient  canons 
punishing  concubinage  among  his  priesthood ;  ^  and  in 
1519  we  find  him  applying  to  Leo  X.  for  a  bull  conferring 
special  power  to  correct  the  enormities  of  the  clergy.^ 
When,  in  1523,  he  proposed  a  general  visitation  for  the 
reformation  of  the  ecclesiastical  body.  Fox,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  urged  it  as  in  the  highest  degree  necessary, 
stating  that  he  himself  had  for  three  years  been  devoting 
all  his  energies  to  restore  discipline  in  his  diocese,  and  that 
his  efforts  had  been  so  utterly  fruitless  that  he  had  aban- 
doned all  hope  of  any  change  for  the  better.*  Cranmer, 
indeed,  in  his  "  Confutation  of  Unwritten  Verities,"  did 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  "within  my  memory,  which  is 
above  thirty  years,  and  also  by  the  information  of  others 
that  be  twenty  years  elder  than  I,  I  could  never  perceive 
or  learn  that  any  one  priest,  under  the  Pope's  kingdom. 


1  Froude's  England,  ch.  X. 

2  Wilkins  III.  669,  678. 

3  Card.  Eboracens.  Epist.  v.  (Martene  Ampliss.  Collect.  III.  1289). 

4  Strype's  Eccles.  Memorials,  T.  I.  App.  p.  19. 

VOL.  II.  r 


82  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

was  ever  punished  for  advoutry  by  his  ordinary."^  It  may 
readily  be  beheved,  therefore,  that  Wolsey  fully  recognised 
the  utter  inefficiency  of  the  worn-out  weapons  of  discipline. 
Yet  he  was  too  shrewd  a  statesman  not  to  foresee  that 
reformation  from  within  or  from  without  must  come,  and, 
in  taking  the  initiative,  he  commenced  by  quietly  and  in- 
directly attacking  the  monastic  orders.  As  a  munificent 
patron  of  letters,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  emulate 
Merton  and  Wykeham  in  founding  a  college  at  Oxford ; 
and  "  Cardinal's  College,"  now  Christ  Church,  became  the 
lever  with  which  to  topple  over  the  vast  monastic  system 
of  England. 

The  development  of  the  plan  was  characteristically 
insidious.  By  a  bull  of  3  April,  1524  (confirmed  by 
Henry,  May  10),  Clement  VII.  authorised  him  to  suppress 
the  priory  of  St.  Frediswood  at  Oxford,  and  to  remove  the 
monks,  for  the  purpose  of  converting  it  into  a  "  Collegium 
Clericorum  Seculorum."^  This  was  followed  by  a  bull, 
dated  August  21  of  the  same  year,  empowering  him  as 
legate  to  make  inquisition  and  reformation  in  all  religious 
houses  throughout  the  kingdom,  to  incarcerate  and  punish 
the  inmates,  and  to  deprive  them  of  their  property  and 
privileges,  all  grants  or  charters  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing.^ The  real  purport  of  this  extraordinary  com- 
mission is  shown  by  the  speedy  issue  of  yet  another  bull, 
dated  September  11,  conceding  to  him  the  confiscation  of 
monasteries  to  the  amount  of  3000  ducats  annual  rental,  for 
the  endowment  of  his  college,  and  alleging  as  a  reason  for 
the  measure  that  many  establishments  had  not  more  than 
five  or  six  inmates.* 

1  Strype's  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Bk,  II.  ch.  v. 

2  Rymer's  Foedera,  XIV.  15. 

3  Wilkins  III.  704. — Bishop  Burnet  says  that  Wolsey's  design  in  procuring  this 
bull  was  to  suppress  all  monasteries,  but  that  he  was  persuaded  to  abandon  his  pur- 
pose on  account  of  opposition  and  dread  of  scandals. — Hist.  Reform.  Vol.  I.  p.  20 
Ed.  1679). 

4  Rymer,  XIV.  24.— Confirmed  by  the  King,  January  7,  1525  (Ibid.  p.  32). 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  83 

The  affair  was  now  fully  in  train,  and  proceeded  with 
accelerating  momentum.  On  3  July,  1525,  Henry  con- 
firmed the  incorporation  of  the  college  ;  his  letters-patent 
of  1  May,  1526,  enumerate  eighteen  monasteries  suppressed 
for  its  benefit,  while  other  letters  of  May  10  grant  seventy- 
one  churches  or  rectories  for  its  support,  and  yet  other 
grants  are  alluded  to  as  made  in  letters  which  have  not 
been  preserved/  In  1528  these  were  followed  by  various 
other  donations  of  religious  houses  and  manors,  and 
during  the  same  year  Wolsey  founded  another  Cardinal's 
College  at  Ipswich,  which  became  a  fresh  source  of 
absorption.^ 

Had  Henry  VIII.  entertained  any  preconceived  design 
of  suppressing  the  religious  houses,  his  impatient  temper 
would  scarcely  have  allowed  him  to  remain  so  long  a 
witness  of  this  spoliation  without  taking  his  share  and 
carrying  the  matter  out  with  his  accustomed  boldness 
and  disregard  of  consequences.  At  length,  however,  he 
claimed  his  portion,  and  procured  from  Clement  a  bull, 
dated  2  November,  1528,  conceding  to  him,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  old  foundations  of  the  King's  Colleges  at 
Cambridge  and  Windsor,  the  suppression  of  monasteries 
to  the  annual  value  of  8000  ducats.^  This  was  followed 
by  another,  a  few  days  later,  empowering  Wolsey  and 
Campeggio,  co-legates  in  the  affair  of  Queen  Katharine's 
divorce,  to  unite  to  other  monasteries  all  those  containing 
less  than  twelve  inmates — thus  authorising  the  suppression 
of  the  latter,  of  which  the  number  was  very  large.* 
Another  bull  of  the  same  date  (November  12)  attacked 
the  larger  abbeys,  which  had  thus  far  escaped.     It  ordered 

1  Rymer  XIV.  pp.  156-6,  172-5. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  240-44,  250-58.  See  a  letter  of  the  English  Ambassadors  at  Rome 
to  Wolsey,  describing  a  conference  on  this  subject  with  the  Pope,  wherein  he 
freely  acknowledged  the  propriety  of  destroying  those  houses  which  were  nothing 
but  a  "  scandalum  religionis." — Strype,  Eccles.  Memorials,  I.  App.  58. 

3  Rymer,  XIV.  pp.  270-1. 

4  Ibid.  272-3. 


84  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  two  cardinals,  under  request  from  the  King,  to  inquire 
into  the  propriety  of  suppressing  the  rich  monasteries 
enjoying  over  10,000  ducats  per  annum,  for  the  purpose 
of  converting  them  into  bishoprics,  on  the  plea  that  the 
seventeen  sees  of  the  kingdom  were  insufficient  for  the 
spiritual  wants  of  the  people.^  The  report  of  the  cardinals 
apparently  seconded  the  views  of  Henry,  for  Clement 
granted  to  them,  29  May,  1529,  the  power  of  creating  and 
arranging  bishoprics  at  their  discretion,  and  of  sacrificing 
additional  monasteries  when  necessary  to  pro\dde  adequate 
revenues.^  It  is  probable  that  the  monks  who  had  been 
unceremoniously  deprived  of  their  possessions  did  not  in 
all  cases  submit  without  resistance,  for  the  bull  of  12 
November,  1528,  respecting  the  smaller  houses,  was 
repeated  31  August,  1529,  i^dth  the  suggestive  addition  of 
authority  to  call  in  the  assistance  of  the  secular  arm.^ 

Wolsey  was  now  tottering  to  his  fall.  Process  against 
him  was  commenced  on  9  October,  1529,  and  on  the 
18th  the  Great  Seal  was  delivered  to  More.  His 
power,  however,  had  lasted  long  enough  to  break  down 
all  the  safeguards  which  had  for  so  many  centuries 
grown  around  the  sacred  precincts  of  ecclesiastical  pro- 
perty ;  and  the  rich  foundations  which  covered  so  large  a 
portion  of  English  territory  lay  defenceless  before  the 
cupidity  of  a  despot  who  rarely  allowed  any  consideration, 
human  or  divine,  to  interfere  with  his  wishes,  whose  ex- 
travagance rendered  him  eager  to  find  new  sources  of 
supply  for  an  exhausted  treasury,  and  whose  temper  had 
been  aroused  by  the  active  support  lent  by  the  preaching 
friars  to  the  party  of  Queen  Katherine  in  the  affair  of  the 
divorce.     Yet  it  is   creditable  to  Henry's  self-command 

1  Rymer,  XIV.  pp.  273-5. 

2  Ibid.  291-3. 

3  Ibid.  345-6.  A  document  showing  one  phase  of  the  struggle  may  be  found  in 
Strype's  Memorials  I.  Append,  p.  89.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  Wolsey  that  he  retained 
his  interest  in  his  colleges  even  after  his  fall.  See  his  letter  to  Gardiner  of  23  July, 
1530  (Ibid.  p. 92). 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  85 

that  the  blow  did  not  fall  sooner,  although  it  came  at 
last. 

It  is  not  my  province  to  enter  into  the  details  of 
Henry's  miserable  quarrel  with  Rome,  which,  except  in 
its  results,  is  from  every  point  of  view  one  of  the  most 
humiliating  pages  of  English  history.  The  year  1532  saw 
the  proclamation  of  the  King  commanding  the  support 
of  his  subjects  in  the  impending  rupture,  and  the  sub- 
scription of  the  clergy  to  a  paper  which,  with  un- 
paralleled servility,  placed  the  whole  ecclesiastical 
constitution  of  the  kingdom  in  his  absolute  power.  ^  The 
following  year  his  long-protracted  divorce  from  Katherine 
of  Aragon  was  consummated ;  the  annates  were  with- 
drawn from  the  Pope,  and  Henry  assumed  the  title  of 
Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of  England.^  In  1535  an 
obedient  Parliament  confirmed  the  acts  of  the  sovereign, 
and  forbade  the  promulgation  of  any  canons  by  synods 
or  convocations  without  his  approval.  The  power  of  the 
Pope  was  abolished  by  proclamation,  and  universities 
and  prelates  rivalled  each  other  in  obsequiously  transferring 
to  Henry  the  reverence  due  to  Rome.^ 

The  greater  portion  of  the  monasteries,  which  had 
already  experienced  a  foretaste  of  the  wrath  to  come, 
hastened  to  proclaim  their  adhesion  to  the  new  theological 
autocracy,  and  means  not  the  most  gentle  were  found  to 
persuade  the  remainder.  The  Carthusians  of  the  Charter 
House  of  London  gave  especial  trouble,  and  the  contest 
between  them  and  the  King  affords  a  vivid  picture  of  the 
times.  There  is  something  very  affecting  in  the  account 
given  by  Strype  of  the  humble  but  resolute  resignation 

1  Pecock's  Records  of  the  Reformation  No.  276  (Vol.  II.  p.  259). 

2  Wilkins  III.  755-62. 

3  Ibid.  770-82,  789.— Parliamentary  Hist,  of  England,  I.  525.     In  1532  Henry  had 
complained  to  his  Parliament  that  the  clergy  were  but  half  subjects  to  him,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  oaths  to  the  Pope,  and  he  desired  that  some  remedy  should  be^ 
found  for  this  state  of  things  (Ibid.  p.  519). 


86  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

with  which  the  prior  and  his  monks  prepared  themselves 
for  martyrdom  in  vindication  of  the  papal  supremacy. ^ 
Their  courage  was  soon  put  to  the  test.  Between  the 
27th  of  April  and  the  4th  of  August,  1535,  the  prior  and 
eleven  of  his  monks  were  put  to  death  with  all  the  horrors 
of  the  punishment  for  high  treason  ;  ^  but  neither  this 
nor  the  efforts  of  a  new  and  more  loyal  prior  were  able 
to  produce  submission.  In  1536,  ten  of  the  most  un- 
yielding were  sent  to  other  houses,  where  several  of  them 
were  subsequently  executed,  and  in  1537  ten  more  were 
thrown  into  Newgate,  where  nine  of  them  died  almost 
immediately — it  is  to  be  presumed  from  the  rigour  of  their 
confinement  and  the  foulness  of  the  gaol.  In  1539,  the 
few  that  remained  were  expelled  ;  the  house  was  seized 
and  used  as  an  arsenal,  until  it  was  given  to  Sir  Edward 
North,  who  changed  it  into  a  residence,  pulling  down  the 
cloisters  and  converting  the  church  into  his  parlour.^  The 
Observantine  Franciscans  were  equally  resolute,  and, 
moreover,  persistently  adhered  to  the  cause  of  Katherine  of 
Aragon.  After  unsuccessful  attempts  to  win  them  over, 
some  two  hundred  of  them  were  sent  to  prison,  where 
they  mostly  perished,  and  in  1537,  eight  of  them  who 
survived  were  allowed  to  leave  England.* 

The  direct  relations  of  the  regular  Orders  with  the 
papacy  rendered  it  impossible  to  regard  them  otherwise 
than  as  a  source  of  disaffection  and  danger  in  the  new 
order  of  things.  Their  destruction  thus  seemed  to  be  a 
pohtical  necessity,  the  desire  for  which  was  enhanced  by 
the  relief  promised  to  Henry's  exhausted  treasury  through 
the  secularisation  of  their  property.  As  a  rule,  their 
establishments  were  not  unpopular,  and,  little  as  Henry 
recked  of  any  opposition  to  his  will,   some   excuse  was 

1  Strype,  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  195. 

2  Suppression  of  Monasteries,  p.  40  (Camden  Soc). — Strype,  op.  cit.  p.  197. 

3  Strype,  op.  cit.  pp.  277-8. 

4  Gasquet,  Henry  VIII.  and  the  English  Monasteries,  I.  156-201  (Ed.  1888). 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  87 

necessary   to  win   over    public    opinion    to    such    harsh 
measures.       The    most   effective   means   for   this   was    a 
visitation  which   should  expose   the   secret   turpitude   of 
monasticism,  and  accordingly,  in  1535,  commissions  were 
issued  to  examine  into  the  foundation,  title,  history,  con- 
dition of  discipline,  and  number  and  character  of  inmates 
of  all  religious  orders/     Thomas  Cromwell  had  no  difficulty 
in  finding  visitors  who  should  supply  the  material  desired. 
In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1535,  three  commissioners 
— John  Ap  Rice   and  Doctors  Legh  and  Layton — were 
busily  engaged  with  the  religious  houses  of  the  south  of 
England.     Of  these,  Ap  Rice,  to  judge  by  his  reports,  was 
inclined  to  be  fair-minded,  while  the  others  were  unscrupu- 
lously eager  to  meet  the  wishes  of  their  master,  and  their 
reports  were  filled  with  descriptions  of  foul  disorders.  They 
were  consequently  selected  to  continue  the  work  in  the 
north,  which,  under  pressure  of  Hmited  time,  was  so  hur- 
riedly performed  that  the  investigation  must  have  been 
merely  nominal.     Parliament  was  to  meet  on  4  February, 
1536,  and  their  work  must  be  completed  in  time  to  lay 
before  it.     Commencing  December  22,  in  about  six  weeks 
they  reported  on  a  hundred  and  fifty-five   houses  in  the 
province  of  York  and  the  dioceses  of  Coventry,  Lichfield, 
and  Norwich,  including  a  few  scattered  ones  elsewhere. 
Only  about  forty  per  cent,  of  the  houses  in  these  districts 
were  visited,  and  of  the  hundred  and  fifty-five  there  were 
forty-three  against  which  nothing  more  serious  than  super- 
stition was  alleged — probably  on  account  of  well-timed 
liberality  exhibited  to  the  visitors.     The  rest  were  described 
as  more  or  less  vicious.^ 

The  result  of  this  visitation,  exaggerated  by  subsequent 
writers,  has  been  to  blacken  unduly  the  memory  of  English 

1  Wilkins,  III.  787. 

2  Calendar  of  State  Papers  of  the  Keign  of  Henry  VIII.  Vol.  IX.,  Nos.  42,  49, 139, 
160,  497,  622  ;  Vol.  X.,  No.  364  ;  Gairdner's  Preface,  p.  xlv. 


88  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

monasticism.     No   one    familiar   with   the  mendacity  of 
pubhc  papers  of  that  age  places  confidence  in  their  unsup- 
ported statements  when  there  was  an  object  to  be  gained, 
and  nothing  in  the  character  of  Henry's  selected  agents 
tends  to  prevent  a  wholesome  attitude  of  doubt.     Besides, 
in  some  cases  there  happens  to  be  evidence  contradicting 
the  statements  of  the  visitors.      Thus,  in  October  1535, 
Layton  reports  to  Cromwell :  *'  The  prior  of  Dover  and  his 
monks  are  as  bad  as  others.     Sodomy  there  is  none,  for 
they  have  no  lack  of  women.     The  Abbot  of  Langdon  is 
worse  than  all  the  rest,  the  drunkennest  knave  living.  His 
canons  are  as  bad  as  he,  without  a  spark  of  virtue."^     The 
result  of  this  was  the  immediate  surrender  of  the  houses  of 
Langdon,  Dover,  and   Folkstone,  but  the  commissioners 
who  received  the  surrender  wrote  to  Cromwell,  Novem- 
ber 16;  "The  house  of  Langdon  is  in  decay,  the  abbot 
unthrifty,  and  his  convent  ignorant.    Dover  is  well  repaired, 
and  the  prior  has  reduced  the  debt  from  £180  to  £100,  of 
whose  nowe  case  divers  of  the  honest  inhabitants  of  Dover 
show  themselves  very  sorry.     Folkestone  is  a  little  house, 
well  repaired,  and  the  prior  a  good  husbandman  beloved  of 
his  neighbours."^     Still  more  compromising   is   the   fact 
that,  on  24  April,  1536,  a  commission  was  issued  to  some 
prominent  men  in  each  county  to  make  a  new  survey  of 
the  monasteries.     Reports  of  these  commissioners,  in  June, 
for  Leicestershire,  Warwickshire,  Rutland,  and  Hunts  are 
extant,  and  they  almost  uniformly  represent  the  inmates 
to  be  of  good  conversation  ;  in  fact,  it  is  especially  signifi- 
cant that  in  Leicestershire,  two — Garendon  and  Gracedieu, 
which  had  been  the  subject  of  particular  animadversion  by 
Legh  and  Layton — were  reported  on  favourably. 

In  this  conflict  of  testimony  we  must  therefore  rely  on 
antecedent  and  circumstantial  evidence,  and  we  may  not 

1  Calendar,  Vol.  IX.  Nos.  669,  829. 

2  Calendar,  Vol.  X,  No.  1191  ;  Gairdner's  Preface,  xlv.-vi. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  89 

accept   as   proven  Father  Gasquet's  pious  and  laborious 
rehabilitation.^     All  contemporary  authorities  agree  that 
the  pre-Reformation  Church  was  steeped  in  worldliness. 
The  English  monasteries  were  not  likely  to  have  improved 
since   Archbishop  Morton  described  their  condition,  half 
a  century  earlier,  as  similarly  deplorable,  or  Wolsey  at  a 
later  period  ;  nor  is  there  any  ground  for  imagining  them 
as   better  than  their  Continental   brethren,  whose   lapses 
were  the  subject  of  bitter  reprehension  by  censors  of  their 
own  faith.     The  Franciscan,  Dr.    Thomas   Murner,  who 
was    subsequently    one    of   Luther's    most    vituperative 
opponents,  in  his  Narrenhesdvwerung  assumes  as  a  matter 
of  course  that  all  parish  priests  kept  concubines,  and  all 
priests  and  monks  meddle  with  men's  wives,  while  in  the 
nunneries   she   who   has   most  children   is   reckoned   the 
abbess.^       A   more  sober   witness   is  Abbot   Trithemius, 
whose  description  of  the  houses  of  his  own  Benedictine 
Order  we  have  seen  above.     Scarce  anything,  indeed,  can 
be   conceived   worse  than   the  condition  of  the  German 
convents  as  detailed  in  a  document  drawn  up  by  order  of 
the  Emperor  Ferdinand  in  1562,  to  stimulate  the  Council 
of  Trent  to  action.^     In  Italy  there  is  ample  evidence  that 
the  regular  Orders  were  no  better  ;  *  and  as  for  France,  it 
is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  description,  by  the  Council  of 
Paris  in  1521,  of  the  entire  absence  of  discipline  in  capi- 
tular and  conventual  life.^     In  fact,  the  whole  conventual 
system  was  so  corrupt  that,  as  we  shall  see,  the  cardinals 
whom  Paul  III.  in  1538  charged  to  draw  up  a  plan  of 
reform    for  the  Church  proposed  to  abolish  all  the  con- 
ventual Orders,  in  order  to  relieve  the  people  of  their  evil 

1  Gasquet's  Henry  VIII.  and  the  English  Monasteries,  Chap.  ix. 

2  Th.  Murner's  Narrenbeschwerung,  Ed.  Scheible,  Stuttgart,  1846. 

3  Le  Plat,  Monumentt.  Concil.  Trident.  V  .244-5. 

4  Pastor,  Geschichte  den  Papste,  III.  126  (Ed.  1895). 

5  Concil.    Parisiens.   ann.  1521,  cap.   2,    3,  4    (Labbe    et    Coleti    Supplem.  V, 
618-19). 


90  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

example,  and  to  place  the  nunneries  under  episcopal  juris- 
diction/ That  public  opinion  in  England  took  the  same 
view  of  the  monastic  establishments  would  appear  from 
the  travels  of  Nicander  Nucius,  who  visited  England  about 
1545,  and  who,  in  relating  the  story  of  their  suppression, 
gives  as  damaging  an  account  of  their  morality  as  Bishop 
Burnet  or  any  of  those  who  have  been  classed  as  their 
special  defamers.^  The  impartial  student  may  therefore 
not  unreasonably  conclude  that,  in  view  of  the  state  of 
monastic  morals  everywhere  else  in  Christendom,  the 
assertion  that  England  was  an  exception  requires  stronger 
evidence  than  has  been  produced. 

That  a  portion  at  least  of  the  people  were  eager  for  the 
secularisation  of  the  religious  houses  is  apparent  from  the 
virulence  of  the  assault  upon  them  in  the  notorious  docu- 
ment knowTi  as  "  The  Beggars'  Petition."  It  calculates 
that,  besides  the  tithes,  one- third  of  the  kingdom  was 
ecclesiastical  property,  and  that  these  vast  possessions 
were  devoted  to  the  support  of  a  body  of  men  who  found 
their  sole  serious  occupation  in  destroying  the  peace  of 
families  and  corrupting  the  virtue  of  women.  The 
economical  injury  to  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  inter- 
ference with  the  royal  prerogative  of  the  ecclesiastical 
system,  were  argued  with  much  cogency,  and  the  King 
was  entreated  to  destroy  it  by  the  most  summary  methods. 
That  any  one  should  venture  to  publish  so  violent  an 
attack  upon  the  existing  Church,  at  a  time  when  punish- 
ment so  prompt  followed  all  indiscretions  of  this  nature, 
renders  this  production  peculiarly  significant  both  as  to 


1  Alius  abusus  corrigendus  est  in  ordinibus  religiosorum  quod  adeo  multi  de- 
formati  sunt  ut  magno  sint  scandalo  ssecularibus  ex  emplumque  plurimum  noceant. 
Conventuales  ordines  abolendos  esse  putamus  omnes.  .  .  .  Abusus  alius  turbat 
Christianum  populum  in  monialibus  quse  sunt  sub  cura  fratrum  conventualiura,  ubi 
plerisque  monasteriis  fiunt  publica  sacrilegia,  cum  maximo  omnium  scandalo. — Le 
Plat,  Monumentt.  Concil.  Trident.  II.  601-2  (Lovanii,  1782). 

2  Travels  of  Nicander  Nucius,  pp.  68-71  (Camden  Soc), 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  91 

the  temper  of  the  educated  portion  of  the  people  and  the 
presumed  intentions  of  the  King/ 

Whether  the  reports  of  the  visitors  were  true  or  false, 
they  served  the  purpose  of  those  who  procured  them. 
The  Parhament  which  met  4  February,  1536,  was  com- 
posed almost  exclusively  of  members  selected  by  the  court 
and  presumably  submissive  to  the  royal  will.  Yet,  when 
a  bill  was  introduced  suppressing  all  houses  whose  landed 
revenues  did  not  exced  £200,  it  seems  to  have  taken  the 
House  by  surprise.  There  were  hesitation  and  delay,  and 
tradition  relates  that  it  required  the  personal  urgency  of 
the  King,  accompanied  by  threats  and  the  reading  of  the 
reports  of  the  visitors,  to  obtain  its  enactment.^     To  justify 

1  As  published  in  the  Harleian  Miscellany,  "The  Beggars'  Petition  "  bears  the  date 
of  1538,  but  internal  evidence  would  assign  it  to  a  time  anterior  to  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries,  and  Burnet  attributes  it  to  the  period  under  consideration,  saying 
that  it  was  written  by  Simon  Fish,  of  Gray's  Inn,  that  it  took  mightily  with  the 
public,  and  that  when  it  was  handed  to  the  King  by  Ann  Boleyn,  "  he  lik'd  it  well, 
and  would  not  suffer  anything  to  be  done  to  the  author  "  (Hist.  Keform.  I.  160). 
Froude,  indeed,  assigns  it  to  the  date  of  1528,  and  states  that  Wolsey  issued  a 
proclamation  against  it,  and  further,  that  Simon  Fish,  the  author,  died  in  1528  (Hist. 
Engl.  Ch.  VI.),  while  Strype  (Eccles  Memorials  I.  165)  includes  it  in  a  list  of  books 
prohibited  by  Cuthbert,  Bishop  of  London,  in  1626.  In  the  edition  of  1546,  the  date 
of  1524  is  attributed  to  it. 

The  tone  of  that  which  was  thus  equally  agreeable  to  the  court  and  to  the  city 
may  be  judged  from  the  following  extracts,  which  are  by  no  means  the  plainest 
spoken  that  might  be  selected. 

"  §  13.  Yea,  and  what  do  they  more  ?  Truly,  nothing  but  apply  themselves  by 
all  the  sleights  they  may  to  have  to  do  with  every  man's  wife,  every  man's  daughter, 
and  every  man's  maid  ;  that  cuckoldry  should  reign  over  all  among  your  subjects  ; 
that  no  man  should  know  his  own  child  ;  that  their  bastards  might  inherit  the 
possessions  of  every  man,  to  put  the  right-begotten  children  clean  beside  their 
inheritance,  in  subversion  of  all  estates  and  godly  order. 

"  §  16.  Who  is  she  that  will  set  her  hands  to  work  to  get  three-pence  a  day 
and  may  have  at  least  twenty-pence  a  day  to  sleep  an  hour  with  a  friar,  a  monk,  or  a 
priest  ?  Who  is  he  that  would  labour  for  a  groat  a  day,  and  may  have  at  least  twelve- 
pence  a  day  to  be  a  bawd  to  a  priest,  a  monk,  or  a  friar  ? 

"§  31.  Wherefore,  if  your  grace  will  set  their  sturdy  loobies  abroad  in  the 
world,  to  get  them  wives  of  their  own,  to  get  their  living  with  their  labour,  in  the 
sweat  of  their  faces,  according  to  the  commandment  of  God,  Oen,  iii. ,  to  give  other 
idle  people,  by  their  example,  occasion  to  go  to  labour  ;  tye  these  holy,  idle  thieves 
to  the  carts  to  be  whipped  naked  about  every  market-town,  till  they  will  fall  to 
labour,  that  they  may,  by  their  importunate  begging,  not  take  away  the  alms  that 
the  good  Christian  people  would  give  unto  us  sore,  impotent,  miserable  people  your 
bedemen." 

2  Gasquet,  op.  cit.,  pp.  311-12.— Gairdner,  Calendar,  Vol.  X.  p.  xlv. 


92  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

it,  the  preamble  recites  that  "  manifest  sin,  vicious,  carnal 
and  abominable  living  is  daily  used  and  committed 
commonly  in  such  little  and  small  abbeys,  priories  and 
religious  houses  of  monks,  canons  and  nuns,  where  the 
congregation  of  such  religious  persons  is  under  the  number 
of  twelve  persons,"  and  that  this  increases  in  spite  of  con- 
tinual visitations  during  the  past  two  hundred  years,  so 
that  the  only  hope  of  amendment  is  to  transfer  their 
inmates  to  the  "  diverse  and  great  solemn  monasteries  of 
this  realm  wherein  (thanks  be  to  God)  religion  is  right  well 
kept  and  observed."^  The  distinction  between  the  "great 
solemn  monasteries,"  which  were  praised,  and  the  small 
ones,  which  were  reviled,  was  a  trifle  illogical,  but  probably 
no  one  ventured  to  criticise  the  inconsistency,  and  the  bill 
was  passed. 

Three  hundred  and  seventy-six  houses  were  swept  away 
by  this  Act,  and  the  "  Court  of  Augmentations  of  the 
King's  Revenue  "  was  established  to  take  charge  of  the 
lands  and  goods  thus  summarily  escheated.  The  rents 
which  thus  fell  to  the  King  were  valued  at  £32,000  a  year, 
and  the  movable  property  at  £100,000,  while  the  com- 
missioners were  popularly  supposed  to  have  been  "  as 
careful  to  enrich  themselves  as  to  increase  the  King's 
revenue."  Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  remarked,  con- 
cerning the  transaction,  that  "  these  lesser  houses  were  as 
thorns  soon  plucked  up,  but  the  great  abbeys  were  like 
petrified  old  oaks ;  yet  they  must  needs  follow,  and  so 
would  others  do  in  Christendom  before  many  years  were 
passed."  But  Stokesley,  however  true  a  prophet  in  the 
general  scope  of  his  observation,  was  mistaken  as  to  the 
extreme  facility  of  eradicating  the  humble  thorns.  The 
country  was  not  so  easily  reconciled  to  the  change  as  the 
versatile,  more  intelligent,  and  less  reverent  inhabitants  of 
the  cities.     Henry,  unluckily,  not  only  had  not  abrogated 

1  27  Henry  VIII.  cap.  28. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  93 

Purgatory  by  proclamation,  but  had  specially  recommended 
the  continuance  of  prayers  and  masses  for  the  dead,^  and 
thousands  were  struck  with  dread  as  to  the  future  prospects 
of  themselves  and  their  dearest  kindred  when  there  should 
be  few  to  offer  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  for  the  benefit  of 
departed  souls,  to  say  nothing  of  those  which  had  been 
paid  for  and  not  yet  celebrated.  The  traveller  and  the 
mendicant,  too,  missed  the  ever  open  door  and  the  coarse 
but  abundant  fare  which  smoothed  the  path  of  the  humble 
wayfarer.  Discontent  spread  widely,  and  was  soon  mani- 
fested openly.  To  meet  this,  most  of  the  lands  were  sold 
at  a  very  moderate  price  to  the  neighbouring  gentry,  under 
condition  of  exercising  free  hospitality  to  supply  the  wants 
of  those  who  had  hitherto  been  dependent  on  conventual 
charity. - 

The  plan  was  only  partially  successful,  and  soon 
another  element  of  trouble  made  itself  apparent.  Of  the 
monks  whose  houses  were  suppressed,  those  who  desired 
to  continue  a  monastic  life  were  transferred  to  the  larger 
foundations,  while  the  rest  took  "  capacities,"  ^  under 
promise  of  a  reasonable  allowance  for  their  journey  home. 

1  Articles  devised  by  the  Kinges  Highnes  Majestie,  ann.  1536  (Formularies  of 
Faith,  Oxford,  1856,  p.  xxxi.). 

2  Burnet,  I.  193-4,  222-4  ;— Pari.  Hist.  I.  526-7.  To  our  modern  notions,  there 
is  something  inexpressibly  disgusting  in  the  openness  with  which  bribes  were 
tendered  to  Cromwell  by  those  who  were  eager  to  obtain  grants  of  abbey  lands 
(Suppression  of  Monasteries,  passim).  On  the  other  hand,  the  abbots  and  abbesses 
who  feared  for  their  houses  had  as  little  scruple  in  offering  him  large  sums  for  his 
protection.  Thus  the  good  Bishop  Latimer  renders  himself  the  intermediary  (16 
Dec,  1536)  of  an  offer  from  the  Prior  of  Great  Malvern  of  500  marks  to  the  King  and 
200  to  Cromwell  to  preserve  that  foundation  ;  while  the  Abbot  of  Peterboro'  tendered 
the  enormous  sum  of  2500  marks  to  the  King  and  £300  to  Cromwell  (Ibid.  150,  179). 
The  liberal  disposition  of  the  latter  seems  to  have  made  an  impression,  for,  though 
he  could  not  save  his  abbey,  he  was  appointed  the  first  Bishop  of  Peterboro' — a  see 
erected  upon  the  ruins  of  the  house. 

3  "  They  be  very  pore,  and  can  have  lytyll  serves  withowtt  ther  capacytes.  The 
bischoypps  and  curettes  be  very  hard  to  them,  withowtt  they  have  ther  capacytes." 
— The  Bishop  of  Dover  to  Cromwell,  10  March,  1538  (Suppression  of  Monasteries, 
p.  193).  These  "capacities"  empowered  them  to  perform  the  functions  of  secular 
priests.  The  good  bishop  pleads  that  certain  poor  monks  may  obtain  them  without 
paying  the  usual  fee. 


94  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

They  received  only  forty  shillings  and  a  gown,  and  with 
this  slender  provision  it  was  estimated  that  about  ten 
thousand  were  turned  adrift  upon  the  world,  in  which  their 
previous  life  had  incapacitated  them  from  earning  a  support. 
The  result  is  visible  in  the  Act  for  the  punishment  of 
"  sturdy  vagabonds  and  beggars,"  passed  by  Parliament  in 
this  same  year,  inflicting  a  graduated  scale  of  penalties, 
of  which  hanging  was  the  one  threatened  for  a  third 
offence/ 

This  was  a  dangerous  addition  to  society  when  discon- 
tent was  smouldering  and  ready  to  burst  into  flame.     The 
result  was  soon  apparent.     After  harvest-time  great  dis- 
turbances convulsed  the  kingdom.     A  rising,  reported  as 
consisting  of  twenty  thousand  men,  in  Lincolnshire,  was 
put  down  by  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  with  a  heavy  force  and 
free  promises  of  pardon.     In  the  North  matters  were  even 
more  serious.     The  clergy  there  were  less  tractable  than 
their  southern   brethren,  and  some  Injunctions  savouring 
strongly  of    Protestantism   aroused   their   susceptibilities 
afresh.    Unwilling  to  submit  without  a  struggle,  they  held 
a  convocation,  in  which  they  denied  the  royal  supremacy 
and  proclaimed  their  obedience  to  the  Pope.     This  was 
rank  rebellion,    especially  as    Paul  III.,  on  30    August, 
1535,  had    issued   his  bull  of  excommunication   against 
Henry,  and  self-preservation  therefore  demanded  the  im- 
mediate  suppression  of  the   recalcitrants.     They   would 
hardly,  indeed,  have  ventured  on  assuming  a  position  of 
such  dangerous  opposition  without  the  assurance  of  popular 
support,   nor  were  their    expectations    or  labours  disap- 
pointed.    The  "  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,"  according  to  report, 
soon  numbered  forty  thousand  men.     Although  Skipton 
and  Scarboro'  bravely  resisted  a  desperate  siege,  the  success 
of  the  insurgents  at  York,  Hull,  and  Pomfret  Castle  was 
encouraging,   and   risings   in    Lancashire,   Durham,    and 

1  27  Henry  VIII.  c.  25,  renewed  by  28  Hen.  VIII.  c.  6.— Parliament.  Hist.  I.  574. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  95 

Westmoreland  gave  to  the  insurrection  an  aspect  of  the 
most  menacing  character.  Good  fortune  and  skilful 
strategy,  however,  saved  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  his 
little  army  from  defeat ;  the  winter  was  rapidly  approach- 
ing, and  at  length  a  proclamation  of  general  amnesty, 
issued  by  the  King  on  December  9,  induced  a  dispersion 
of  the  rebels.  The  year  1537  saw  another  rising  in  the 
North,  but  this  time  it  only  numbered  eight  thousand 
men.  Repulsed  at  Carlisle,  and  cut  to  pieces  by  Norfolk, 
the  insurgents  were  quickly  put  down,  and  other  dis- 
turbances of  minor  importance  were  even  more  readily 
suppressed.^ 

Strengthened  by  these  triumphs  over  the  disaffected, 
Henry  proceeded,  in  1537,  to  make  the  acknowledgment 
of  papal  authority  a  crime  liable  to  the  penalties  of  a 
praemunire ;  ^  and,  as  resistance  was  no  longer  to  be 
dreaded,  he  commenced  to  take  possession  of  some  of  the 
larger  houses.  These  did  not  come  within  the  scope  of 
the  Act  of  Parliament,  and  therefore  were  made  the 
subject  of  special  transactions.  The  abbots  resigned, 
either  from  having  been  implicated  in  the  late  insurrections, 
or  feeling  that  their  evil  hves  would  not  bear  investigation, 
or  doubtless,  in  many  cases,  from  a  clear  perception  of  the 
doom  impending  in  the  near  future,  which  rendered  it 
prudent  to  make  the  best  terms  possible  while  yet  there 
was  time.  Thus  in  these  cases  the  monks  were  generally 
pensioned  with  eight  marks  a  year,  while  some  of  the 
abbots  secured  a  revenue  of  400  or  500  marks. ^  In  an 
agreement  which  has  been  preserved,  the  monks  were  to 

1  Burnet,  I.  227-34  ;  Collect.  160.— Wilkins  III.  784,  792,  812.— Kymer,  XIV.  549. 

2  28  Henry  VIII.  c.  10.— Pari.  Hist.  I.  533. 

Praemunire  derives  its  name  from  the  statues  27  Edward  III.  cap.  1,  and  16  Richard 
II.  cap.  2,  against  carrying  to  Rome  actions  cognisable  in  the  royal  courts.  It  was 
virtually  equivalent  to  outlawry. 

3  Burnet,  I.  235-7.  These  pensions  were  not  in  all  cases  secured  without  diflS- 
culty,  even  after  promises  had  been  made  and  agreements  entered  into  (Suppression 
of  Monasteries,  p.  126). 


96  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

receive  pensions  varying  from  53,9.  4fd.  to  £4  a  year, 
according  to  their  age/  In  some  cases,  indeed,  according 
to  Bishop  Latimer,  in  a  sermon  preached  before  Edward 
VI.,  the  royal  exchequer  was  reUeved  by  finding  prefer- 
ment for  most  unworthy  objects :  "  However  bad  the 
reports  of  them  were,  some  were  made  bishops  and  others 
put  into  good  dignities  in  the  Church,  that  so  the  King 
might  save  their  pensions  that  otherwise  were  to  be  paid 
them."^  An  effectual  means,  moreover,  of  inducing 
voluntary  surrenders  was  by  stopping  their  source  of 
support,  and  thus  starving  them  out.  Richard,  Bishop  of 
Dover,  one  of  the  commissioners  in  Wales,  writes  to 
Cromwell,  23  May,  1538  ;  "  I  thinke  before  the  yere  be  owt 
ther  schall  be  very  fewe  howsis  abill  to  lyve,  but  schall  be 
glade  to  giffe  up  their  howseis  and  provide  for  them  selvys 
otherwise,  for  their  thei  schall  have  no  living."  In  antici- 
pation of  the  impending  doom,  many  of  the  abbots  and 
priors  had  sold  everything  that  was  saleable,  from  lands 
and  leases  down  to  spits  and  kitchen  utensils,  leaving  their 
houses  completely  denuded.  The  letters  of  the  com- 
missioners are  full  of  complaints  respecting  this  sharp 
practice,  and  of  their  efforts  to  trace  the  property.  Another 
mode  of  compelling  surrenders  was  by  threatening  the 
strict  enforcement  of  the  rules  of  the  Order.  Thus,  in  the 
official  report  of  the  surrender  of  the  Austin  Friars  of 
Gloucester,  we  find  the  alternative  given  them,  when  "  the 
seyd  freeres  seyed  ...  as  the  worlde  ys  nowe  they  war 
not  abuU  to  kepe  them  and  leffe  in  ther  howseys,  wher- 
fore  voluntaryly  they  gaffe  ther  howseys  into  the  vesytores 
handes  to  the  kynges  use.  The  vesytor  seyd  to  them, 
'  thynke  nott,  nor  hereafter  reportt  nott,  that  ye  be  sup- 
presseyd,  for  I  have  noo  such  auctoryte  to  suppresse  yow, 
but  only  to  reforme  yow,  wherfor  yf  ye  woll  be  reformeyd, 

1  Suppression  of  Monasteries,  p.  170. — Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  262. 

2  Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Book  i.  Chap.  ix. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  97 

accordeyng  to  good  order,  ye  may  contynew  for  all  me.' 
They  seyd  they  war  nott  abull  to  contynew,"  whereupon 
they  were  ejected/ 

In  the  year  1538  the  work  proceeded  with  increased 
rapidity,  no  less  than  158  surrenders  of  the  larger  houses 
being  enrolled.  Many  of  the  abbots  were  attainted  of 
treason  and  executed,  and  the  abbey  lands  forfeited. 
Means  not  of  the  nicest  kind  were  taken  to  increase  the 
disrepute  of  the  monastic  orders,  and  they  retaliated  in  the 
same  way.  Thus,  the  Abbot  of  Crossed-Friars,  in  London, 
was  surprised  in  the  day  time  with  a  woman  under  the 
worst  possible  circumstances,  giving  rise  to  a  lawsuit  more 
curious  than  decent ;  ^  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Abbess 
of  Chepstow  accused  Dr.  London,  one  of  the  visitors,  of 
corrupting  her  nuns.^  Public  opinion,  however,  did  not 
move  fast  enough  for  the  rapacity  of  those  in  power,  and 
strenuous  exertions  were  made  to  stimulate  it.  All  the 
foul  stories  that  could  be  found  or  invented  respecting  the 
abbeys  were  raked  together  ;  but  these  proving  insufficient, 
the  impostures  concerning  relics  and  images  were  investi- 
gated with   great   success,  and  many  singular  exposures 

1  Suppression  of  Monast.  pp.  194,  203. 

3  A  letter  from  John  Bartelot  to  Cromwell  shows  that  the  abbot  purchased  secrecy 
by  distributing  thirty  pounds  to  those  who  detected  him,  and  promising  them  thirty 
more.  This  latter  sum  was  subsequently  reduced  to  six  pounds,  for  which  the  holy 
man  gave  his  note.  This  not  being  paid  at  maturity,  he  was  sued,  when  he  had  the 
audacity  to  complain  to  Cromwell,  and  to  threaten  to  prosecute  the  intruders  for 
robbery  and  force  them  to  return  the  money  paid.  Bartelot  relates  his  share  in  the 
somewhat  questionable  transaction  with  great  naivete,  and  applies  to  Cromwell  for 
protection. — Suppression  of  Monasteries,  Letter  xxv. 

3  This  may  have  been  true,  for  Dr.  London  was  one  of  the  miserable  tools  who 
are  the  fitting  representatives  of  the  time.  His  desire  to  discover  the  irregularities 
of  the  monastic  orders  arose  from  no  reverence  for  virtue,  for  he  underwent  public 
penance  at  Oxford  for  adoltery  with  a  mother  and  daughter  (Strype,  Eccles.  Memor. 
I.  376),  and  his  zeal  in  suppressing  the  monasteries  was  complemented  with  equal 
zeal  in  persecuting  Protestants.  In  1543  he  made  himself  conspicuous,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Gardiner,  by  having  heretics  burned  under  the  provisions  of  the  Six 
Articles.  His  eagerness  in  this  good  work  led  him  to  commit  perjury,  on  conviction 
of  which  he  was  pilloried  in  Windsor,  Beading,  and  Newbury,  and  thrust  into  the 
Fleet,  where  he  died. — Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Book  i.  chap.  26,  27. 

In  fact,  Henry's  capricious  despotism  rendered  it  almost  impossible  that  he  could 
be  served  by  men  of  self-respect  and  honour. 

VOL.  II.  G 


98  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

were  made  which  gave  the  King  fresh  warrant  for  his 
arbitrary  measures,  and  placed  the  rehgious  houses  in  a 
more  defenceless  position  than  ever.^ 

Despite  all  this,  in  the  session  of  1539  all  the  twenty- 
eight  parliamentary  abbots  had  their  writs,  and  no  less 
than  twenty  sat  in  the  House  of  Lords.  ^  Yet  the  influence 
of  the  court  and  the  progress  of  pubhc  opinion  were  shown 
in  an  Act  which  confirmed  the  suppressions  of  the  larger 
houses  not  embraced  in  the  former  Act,  as  well  as  all  that 
might  thereafter  be  suppressed,  forfeited,  or  resigned,^  and 
9  May,  1540,  by  special  enactment,  the  ancient  Order  of 
the  Knights  of  St.  John  was  broken  up,  pensions  being 
granted  to  the  grand  prior  and  some  of  the  principal 
dignitaries.*  These  measures  consummated  the  ruin  of 
the  monastic  system  in  England.  Henceforth  it  was  al- 
together at  the  King's  mercy,  and  his  character  was  not 
one  to  temper  power  with  moderation.  In  1539  there  are 
upon  record  fifty-seven  surrenders  of  the  great  abbeys,^ 

1  Burnet,  I.  238-43.— See  also  Froude's  Hist.  Engl.  III.  285  et  seq.  During  his 
visitation  (August  27,  1538), the  Bishop  of  Dover  writes  to  Cromwell,  "  I  have  Mal- 
kow's  ere  that  Peter  stroke  of,  as  yt  ys  wrytyn,  and  a  M.  as  trewe  as  that "  (Suppres- 
sion of  Monasteries,  p.  212).  In  a  report  of  December  28,  1538,  Dr.  London  observes, 
with  dry  humour,  "  J  have  dyvers  other  propre  thinges,  as  two  heddes  of  seynt 
Ursula,  wich  bycause  ther  ys  no  maner  of  sylver  abowt  them,  I  reserve  tyll  I  have 
another  hedd  of  herse,  wich  I  schall  fynd  in  my  waye  within  theese  xiiii.  days,  as  I 
am  creadably  inf ormyd "  (Ibid.  p.  234).  Dr.  Layton  writes  in  the  same  spirit  to 
Cromwell :  "  Yee  shall  also  receive  a  Bag  of  Relicks  wherein  ye  shall  see  Stranger 
Things  as  shall  appear  by  the  Scripture.  As  God's  Coat,  or  Ladle's  Smock ;  Part  of 
God's  Supper,  In  ccEna  Domini ;  Pars  petrae  super  qua  natus  erat  Jesus  in  Bethlehem. 
Besides  there  is  in  Bethlehem  plenty  of  Stones  and  sometimes  Quarries,  and  maketh 
their  mangers  of  Stone.  The  scripture  of  every  thing  shall  declare  you  all.  And  all 
these  of  Mayden  Bradley.  Where  is  a  holy  Father  Prior ;  and  hath  but  six  Sons  and 
one  Daughter  married  yet  of  the  goods  of  the  Monastery;  And  he  thanketh  God, 
he  never  meddled  with  married  women  ;  but  all  with  Maidens,  the  fairest  could  be 
gotten.     And  always  married  them  right  well.     The  Pope,  considering  his  fragility, 

gave  him  licence  to  keep  a  w :  and  hath  good  writing,  sub  Plumbo,  to  discharge 

his  conscience  "  (Strype,  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  253). — Nicander  Nucius  (op.  cit.  pp.  51- 
62)  relates  some  of  the  stories  current  at  the  time  of  the  miracles  engineered  by  the 
monks  to  stave  off  their  impending  doom. 

2  Pari.  Hist.  I.  535. 

3  31  Henry  VIII.  c.  13  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  537). 

4  32  Henry  VIII.  c.  24  (Ibid.  543-44). 
6  Burnet  I.  262-3. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  99 

and  a  large  number  in  1540,  the  good  house  of  Godstow 
being  the  last  of  the  great  monasteries  to  fall.  Of  the  old 
monastic  system  this  left  only  the  chantries,  free  chapels, 
collegiate  churches,  hospitals,  &c.,  which  were  gradually 
absorbed  during  the  succeeding  years,^  until  the  necessities 
of  the  King  prompted  a  sweeping  measure  for  their  destruc- 
tion. Accordingly  in  1545  a  bill  was  brought  in  placing 
them  all  at  his  disposition,  together  with  the  property  of 
all  guilds  and  fraternities.  There  were  some  indications 
of  opposition,  but  the  King  pleaded  the  expenditures  of  the 
French  and  Scottish  wars,  and  solemnly  promised  his 
Parhament  "  that  all  should  be  done  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  common  profit  of  the  realm,"  whereupon  it  was  passed.^ 
It  is  computed  that  the  number  of  monasteries  suppressed 
by  these  various  measures  was  645  ;  of  colleges,  90 ;  of 
chantries  and  free  chapels,  2374 ;  and  of  hospitals,  110.^ 

A  vast  amount  of  property  thus  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  court.  The  clear  yearly  rental  of  the  suppressed 
houses  alone  was  rated  at  £131,607  6s.  4d — an  immense 
sum  in  those  days  ;  but  Burnet  states  that  in  reality  it  was 
almost  tenfold  the  amount.*  Small  as  may  have  been  the 
good  effected  by  these  enormous  possessions  in  the  hands 
of  the  monks,  it  was  even  more  worthless  under  the  man- 
agement of  its  new  masters.  Henry  admitted  the  heavy 
responsibility  which  he  assumed  in  thus  seizing  the  wealth 
which  had  been  dedicated  to  pious  uses,  and  he  entertained 
magnificent  schemes  for  devoting  it  to  the  public  benefit, 
but  his  own  extravagance  and  the  grasping  avarice  of 
needy  courtiers  wrought  out  a  result  ridiculously  mean. 
Thus  he  designed  to  set  aside  a  rental  of  £18,000  for  the 

1  Kymer.  XIV.  XV. 

2  37  Hen.  VIII.  c.  4  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  561). 

3  Pari.  Hist.  I.  537. 

4  This  may  readily  be  considered  no  exaggeration.  A  letter  from  John  Freeman 
to  Cromwell  values  at  £80,000  the  lead  alone  stripped  from  the  dismantled  houses 
(Suppression  of  Monasteries,  p.  290). 


100  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

support  of  eighteen  "  Byshopprychys  to  be  new  made."^ 
For  this  purpose  he  obtained  full  power  from  Parliament 
in  1539,^  and  in  1540  he  established  one  on  the  remains  of 
the  Abbey  of  Westminster.  Those  of  Chester,  Gloucester, 
and  Peterboro'  were  estabhshed  in  1541,  and  in  1543  those 
of  Oxford  and  Bristol,^  and  one  of  them,  that  of  West- 
minster, was  suppressed  in  1550,  leaving  only  five  as  the 
result.  The  people  were  quieted  by  assurances  that  taxes 
would  be  abrogated  for  ever  and  the  kingdom  kept  in  a 
most  efficient  state  of  defence ;  but  subsidies  and  bene- 
volences were  immediately  exacted  with  more  frequency 
and  energy  than  ever.*  Splendid  foundations  were  pro- 
mised for  institutions  of  learning,  but  little  was  given ;  a 
moderate  sum  was  expended  in  improving  the  sea-ports, 
while  broad  manors  and  rich  farms  were  granted  to 
favourites  at  almost  nominal  prices ;  and  the  ill-gotten 
wealth  abstracted  from  the  Church  disappeared  without 
leaving  traces  except  in  the  sudden  and  overgrown  fortunes 
of  those  gentlemen  who  were  fortunate  or  prompt  enough 
to  make  use  of  the  golden  opportunity,  and  who  to  obtain 
them  had  no  scruple  in  openly  tendering  bribes  and  shares 
in  the  spoil  to  Cromwell,  the  omnipotent  favourite  of  the 
King.^  The  complaints  of  the  people,  who  found  their  new 
masters  harder  than  the  old,  may  be  estimated  from  some 
specimens  printed  by  Strype.^ 

If  it  be  asked  what  becarne  of  the  "  holy  idle  thieves  " 
and  "  sturdy  loobies "  whom  the  Beggars'  Petition  so 
earnestly  desired  to  be  thrown  upon  the  world,  the  answer 
may  be  found  in  the  legislation  of  Edward  VI.     It  was 

'  1  Such  is  the  substance  of  a  memorandum  in  Henry's  own  handwriting  (Suppres- 
sion of  Monasteries,  No.  131,  p.  263). 

2  31  Hen.  VIII.  c.  9  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  640). 

3  Burnet  I.  300. 

4  Strype,  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  345. 

5  See  letters  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  Audley  and  the  learned  Sir  Thomas  Elyot  to 
Cromwell.— strype,  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  263-5. 

6  Op.  cit.  I.  392-403  ;  II.  258-63. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  101 

impossible  that  the  sudden  and  violent  overthrow  of  a 
system  on  which  nearly  all  charitable  relief  was  based 
could  be  effected  without  causing  infinite  misery  during 
the  period  of  transition,  no  matter  how  tenderly  the 
interests  of  the  poor  might  be  guarded.  In  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  Catholic  Church  all  benevolence  finds  its  ex- 
pression through  ecclesiastical  instrumentalities,  and  the 
immense  possessions  of  the  mediaeval  establishment  had 
been  confided  to  it  largely  in  its  capacity  of  the  universal 
almoner.  In  seizing  these  possessions  the  State  was 
morally  bound  to  assume  the  corresponding  obligations, 
but  time  was  required  for  the  adjustment,  and  the  greedy 
rulers,  during  the  minority  of  Edward  VI.,  were  much  more 
intent  upon  increasing  their  acquisitions  than  in  listening  to 
the  demands  of  humanity.  By  his  first  Parliament,  in 
1547,  an  Act  was  passed  confirming  that  of  1545,  concern- 
ing the  hospitals,  chantries,  guilds,  &c.,  under  which  all 
remnants  that  had  escaped  the  rapacity  of  the  late  sovereign 
were  placed  at  the  mercy  of  the  Protector  Somerset  and 
his  colleagues  of  the  Council,  who  speedily  absorbed  not 
only  them,  but  everything  that  could  be  stripped  from  the 
parish  churches.^  In  the  preamble  of  this  Act,  one  of  its 
objects  was  specified  to  be  the  "  better  provision  for  the 
poor  and  needy,"  thus  recognising  the  responsibility  of  the 

1  1  Edw.  VI.  c.  14.  Dr.  Augustus  Jessop  tells  us  that "  the  ring  of  the  miscreants 
who  robbed  the  monasteries  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth  was  the  first,  but  the 
ring  of  the  robbers  who  robbed  the  poor  and  helpless  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the 
Sixth  was  ten  times  worse  than  the  first.  .  .  .  The  accumulated  wealth  of  centuries, 
their  houses  and  lands,  their  money,  their  vessels  of  silver  and  their  vessels  of  gold, 
their  ancient  cups  and  goblets  and  salvers,  even  to  their  very  chairs  and  tables,  were 
all  set  down  in  inventories  and  catalogues,  and  all  swept  into  the  great  robbers' 
hoard  .  .  .  every  vestment  and  chalice,  and  candlestick  and  banner,  organs  and  bells, 
and  picture  and  image  and  altar  and  shrine." — *'  In  three  years  it  may  be  said  that 
almost  all  the  parish  churches  in  England  had  been  looted  ;  before  the  end  of  the 
king's  reign  there  had  been  a  clean  sweep  of  all  that  was  worth  stealing  from  the 
parish  chests,  or  the  church  walls,  or  the  church  treasuries.  In  the  next  generation 
there  were  churches  by  the  score  that  possessed  not  even  a  surplice ;  there  were 
others  that  had  not  even  a  chalice,  and  others  again,  in  considerable  numbers,  that 
were  described  as  •ruinated.'"— Before  the  Great  Pillage,  pp.  39-40,  66  (London 
1901). 


102  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

State  to  replace  the  assistance  which  had  been  afforded  by 
the  Church  and  the  guilds,  but  Parliament  a  few  weeks 
earlier  had  already  taken  measures,  not  to  relieve  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  poor,  but  to  repress  the  vagabondage  which 
had  necessarily  resulted  from  the  destruction  of  the 
monasteries.  In  this  Act  the  magnitude  of  the  evil  is 
indicated  by  the  rigorously  inhuman  measures  deemed 
necessary  for  its  abatement.  Every  able-bodied  man, 
loitering  in  any  place  for  three  days  without  working  or 
offering  to  work,  was  held  to  be  a  vagabond  ;  he  was  to  be 
branded  on  the  breast  with  a  letter  V,  and  be  adjudged  as 
a  slave  for  two  years  to  any  one  who  would  bring  him  be- 
fore a  justice  of  the  peace. ^  This  substitute  for  clerical 
almsgiving  was  deemed  sufficient  for  the  time,  and  it  was 
not  until  five  years  later,  in  1552,  that  a  practical  effort 
was  made  to  alleviate  the  miseries  of  poverty  by  a  poor- 
law,  the  commencement  of  a  series  which  has  since  burdened 
England  with  ever-increasing  weight.^ 

The  monastic  establishments  of  Ireland  shared  the  same 
fate.  Rymer^  gives  the  text  of  a  commission  for  the 
suppression  of  a  nunnery  of  the  diocese  of  Dublin  in  1535. 
The  insubordination  of  the  island,  however,  rendered  it  diffi- 
cultto  carry  out  the  measure  everywhere,  and  finally,in  1541, 
it  was  accomplished  by  virtually  granting  their  lands  to  the 
native  chieftains.  These  were  good  Catholics,  but  they 
could  not  resist  the  temptation.  They  joined  eagerly  in 
grasping  the  spoil,  and  the  desirable  political  object  was 
effected  of  detaching  them,  for  the  time,  from  the  foreign 
alliances  with  the  Catholic  powers,  which  threatened 
serious  evils.^ 


1  1  Edw.  VI.  c.  3.— Pari.  Hist.  I.  683. 

2  5-6  Edw.  VI.  cap.  2.  For  the  charitable  functions  of  the  guilds  destroyed 
under  Edward  VI.  see  J.  E.  Thorold  Kogers,  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,  II. 
346-8. 

3  Foedera,  T.  XIV.  p.  551. 

4  Froude,  Hist.  Engl.  IV.  543. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  103 

It  is  a  striking  proof  of  Henry's  strength  of  will  and 
intense  individuality  of  character,  that,  in  thus  tearing  up 
by  the  roots  the  whole  system  of  monachism,  he  did  not 
yield  one  jot  to  the  powerful  section  of  his  supporters  who 
had  pledged  themselves  to  the  logical  sequence  of  his  acts, 
the  abrogation  of  sacerdotal  celibacy  in  general.  While 
every  reason  of  policy  and  statesmanship  urged  him  to 
grant  the  privilege  of  marriage  to  the  secular  clergy,  whom 
he  forced  to  transfer  to  him  the  allegiance  formerly 
rendered  to  Rome,  while  his  chief  religious  advisers  at 
home  and  his  Protestant  allies  abroad  used  every  endeavour 
to  wring  from  him  this  concession,  he  steadily  and  persis- 
tently refused  it  to  the  end,  and  we  can  only  guess  whether 
his  firmness  arose  from  conscientious  conviction  or  from 
the  pride  of  a  controversialist. 

Notwithstanding  his  immovable  resolution  on  this  point, 
his  power  seemed  ineffectual  to  stay  the  progress  of  the 
new  ideas.  An  assembly  held  by  his  order  in  May  1530, 
to  condemn  the  heretical  doctrines  disseminated  in  certain 
books,  shows  how  openly  the  advocates  of  clerical  marriage 
had  promulgated  their  views  while  yet  Wolsey  was  prime 
minister  and  Henry  gloried  in  the  title  of  Defender  of  the 
Faith.  Numerous  books  were  denounced  in  which  celibacy 
was  ridiculed,  its  sanctity  disproved,  and  its  evil  influences 
commented  upon  in  the  most  irreverent  manner.^     These 

1  Thus  '*  An  Exposition  into  the  sevenith  Chapitre  of  the  firste  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians "  seems  to  have  been  almost  entirely  devoted  to  an  argument  against 
celibacy,  adducing  all  manner  of  reasons  derived  from  nature,  morality,  necessity, 
and  Scripture,  and  describing  forcibly  the  evils  arising  from  the  rule.  The  author 
does  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  *'  Matrimony  is  as  golde,  the  spirituall  estates  as 
dung,"  and  the  tenor  of  his  writings  may  be  understood  from  his  triumphant  ex- 
clamation, after  insisting  that  all  the  Apostles  and  their  immediate  successors  were 
married — **  Seeing  that  ye  chose  not  married  men  to  bishoppes,  other  Criste  must  be 
a  foole  or  unrighteous  which  so  did  chose,  or  you  anticristis  and  deceyvers.'* 

The  "Sum  of  Scripture"  was  more  moderate  in  its  expressions:  "Yf  a  man 
vowe  to  lyve  chaste  and  in  povertie  in  a  monasterie,  than  yf  he  perceyve  that  in 
the  monastery  he  lyveth  woorse  than  he  did  before,  as  in  fornication  and  theft 
then  he  may  leve  the  cloyster  and  breke  his  vowe  without  synne." 

Tyndale  in  "  The  Obedience  of  a  Cristen  Man "  is  most  uncompromising : 
'*  Oportet  presbyterem  ducere  uxorem  duas  ob  causas."  .      .  *'  If   thou   bind  thy 


104  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

doctrines  were  sometimes  carried  into  practice,  and  the 
orthodox  clergy  had  Httle  ceremony  in  visiting  them 
with  the  sharpest  penalties  of  the  canons.  It  was  about 
this  time  that  Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  condemned 
to  imprisonment  for  life  Thomas  Patmore,  the  incumbent 
of  Hadlam  in  Hertfordshire,  for  encouraging  his  curate 
to  marry  and  permitting  him  subsequently  to  officiate; 
and  the  unfortunate  man  actually  lay  for  three  years  in 
gaol,  until  released  by  the  intercession  of  Cranmer.^ 

If  the  reforming  polemics  were  thus  bold  while  Henry 
was  yet  orthodox,  it  may  readily  be  imagined  how  keenly 
they  watched  the  progress  of  his  quarrel  with  the  Pope, 
and  how  loud  became  their  utterances  as  he  gradually  threw 
off  his  allegiance  to  Rome  and  persecuted  all  who  hesitated 
to  follow  in  his  footsteps.  He  soon  showed,  however,  that 
he  allowed  none  to  precede  him,  and  that  all  consciences 
were  to  be  measured  by  the  royal  ell-wand.  Thus  his  pro- 
ceedmgs  against  the  Carthusians  and  Franciscans  in  1534 
were  varied  by  a  proclamation  directed  against  seditious 
books  and  priestly  marriages.  As  we  have  seen,  some 
unions  had  taken  place,  and  all  who  had  committed  the 
indiscretion  were  deprived  of  their  functions  and  reduced  to 
the  laity,  though  the  marriages  seem  to  have  been  recognised 
as  vahd.  Future  transgressions,  moreover,  were  threatened 
with  the  royal  indignation  and  further  punishment — words 
of  serious  import  at  such  a  time  and  under  such  a 
monarch.^ 

self  to  chastitie  to  obteyn  that  which  Criste  purchesed   for  the,    surely  soo  art 
thow  an  infidele." 

The  "  Kevelation  of  Anticriste  "  carries  the  war  into  the  enemy's  territory  in  a 
fashion  somewhat  savage  :  "  Keping  of  virginitie  and  chastite  of  religion  is  a 
deveUishe  thinge  "  (Wilkins  III.  728-34). 

1  Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Book  ill.  Chapter  34. 

2  Wilkins  III.  778.— Strype,  in  his  "Memorials  of  Cranmer,"  Bk.  i.  Chap.  18, 
gives  this  proclamation  as  dated  November  16,  in  the  30th  year  of  Henry  VIII., 
which  would  place  it  in  1538,  and  Bishop  Wilkins  also  prints  (III.  696)  from  Harmer's 
"Specimen  of  Errors"  the  same  with  unimportant  variations,  as  "given  this  16th 
day  of  November,  in  the  13th  year  of  our  reign,"  which  would  place  it  in  1521. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  105 

In  spite  of  all  this,  the  chief  advisers  of  Henry  did  not 
scruple  to  connive  at  infractions  of  the  proclamation.  Both 
Cranmer  and  Cromwell  favoured  the  Reformation :  the 
former  was  himself  secretly  married,  and  even  ventured  to 
urge  the  King  to  reconsider  his  views  on  priestly  celibacy  ;  ^ 
while  the  latter,  though,  as  a  layman,  without  any  such 
personal  motive,  was  disposed  to  relax  the  strictness  of  the 
rule  of  celibacy.  During  the  visitation  of  the  monasteries, 
for  instance,  the  Abbot  of  Walden  had  little  hesitation  in 
confessing  to  Ap  Rice,  the  visitor,  that  he  was  secretly 
married,  and  asked  to  be  secured  from  molestation.  The 
confidence  thus  manifested  in  the  friendly  disposition  of 
the  vicar-general  was  satisfactorily  responded  to.  Crom- 
well replied,  merely  warning  him  to  "  use  his  remedy " 
without,  if  possible,  causing  scandal.^  A  singular  petition, 
addressed  to  him  in  1536  by  the  secular  clergy  of  the  dio- 
cese of  Bangor,  illustrates  forcibly  both  the  confidence  felt 
in  his  intentions  and  the  necessity  of  the  Abbot  of  Walden's 

It  is  impossible,  however,  at  a  time  when  even  the  Lutherans  of  Saxony  had 
scarcely  ventured  on  the  innovation,  that  in  England  priestly  marriage  could 
already  have  become  as  common  as  the  proclamation  shows  it  to  be.  The  bull  of 
Leo  X.,  thanking  Henry  for  his  refutation  of  Luther,  was  dated  4  November,  1521, 
and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  King's  zeal  for  the  faith  would  at  such  a  moment 
have  prompted  him  to  much  more  stringent  measures  of  repression,  if  he  had  ven- 
tured  at  that  epoch  to  invade  the  sacred  precincts  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction — a 
thing  he  would  have  been  by  no  means  likely  to  do.  The  date  of  1521  is  there- 
fore evidently  an  error. 

For  the  same  reasons  I  have  been  forced  to  reject  a  discussion  in  convocation 
of  the  same  year  (Wilkins  III.  697),  in  which  the  question  of  sacerdotal  marriage 
was  decided  triumphantly  in  the  affirmative.  The  proceedings  are  evidently  those 
of  December  1547,  in  the  first  year  of  Edward  VI. 

1  Burnet's  Collections  I.  319. 

2  MS.  State  Paper  Office  (Froude,  III.  65).  Ap  Rice's  report  to  Cromwell  is 
sufficiently  suggestive  as  to  the  interior  life  of  the  monastic  orders  to  deserve 
transcription.  "As  we  were  of  late  at  Walden,  the  abbot  there  being  a  man  of 
good  learning  and  right  sincere  judgment,  as  I  examined  him  alone,  showed  me 
secretly,  upon  stipulation  of  silence,  but  only  unto  you  as  our  judge,  that  he  had 
contracted  matrimony  with  a  certain  woman  secretly,  having  present  thereat  but  one 
trusty  witness ;  because  he,  not  being  able,  as  he  said,  to  contain,  though  he  could 
not  be  suffered  by  the  laws  of  man,  saw  he  might  do  it  lawfully  by  the  laws  of  God  ; 
and  for  the  avoiding  of  more  inconvenience,  which  before  he  was  provoked  unto,  he 
did  thus,  having  confidence  in  you  that  this  act  should  not  be  anything  prejudicial 
unto  him." 


106  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

"  remedy  "  in  the  immorality  which  prevailed.     There  had 
been   a   visitation  in  which    the   petitioners    admit  that 
many  of  them  had  been  found  in  fault,  and  as  their  women 
had  been  consequently  taken  away,  they  pray  the  vicar- 
general  to  devise  some  means  by  which  their  consorts  may 
be   restored.     They  do   not  venture   to  ask  directly  for 
marriage,  but  decency  forbids  the  supposition  that  they 
could  openly  request  Cromwell  to  authorise  a  system  of 
concubinage.     Nothing  can  be  more  humiliating  than  their 
confession  of  the  relations   existing  between  themselves, 
as  ministers  of  Christ,  and  the  flocks  entrusted  to  their 
spiritual  care.     After  pleading  that  without  women  they 
cannot  keep  house  and   exercise   hospitality,   they   add: 
"  We  ourselves  shall  be  driven  to  seek  our  living  at  ale- 
houses and  taverns,  for  mansions  upon  the  benefices  and 
vicarages  we  have  none.     And  as  for  gentlemen  and  sub- 
stantial honest  men^  for  fear  of  inconvenience,  knowing  our 
frailty  and  accustomed  liberty,  they  will  in  no  wise  board  us 
in  their  houses"^ 

The  tendencies  thus  exhibited  by  the  King's  advisers 
called  forth  the  remonstrances  of  the  conservatives.  In 
June  1536  the  Lower  House  of  Convocation  presented  a 
memorial  inveighing  strongly  against  the  progress  of 
heresy,  and  among  the  obnoxious  opinions  condemned  was 
"  That  it  is  preached  and  taught  that  all  things  awght  to 
be  in  comen  and  that  Priests  shuld  have  wifFes,"  and  they 
added  that  books  containing  heretical  opinions  were  printed 
"  cum  privilegio,"  were  openly  sold  among  the  people,  and 

1  MS.  State  Paper  Office  (Froude,  III.  372).  It  is  not  to  be  assumed,  however, 
that  the  clergy  were  worse  than  the  laity.  During  the  visitation  of  the  monasteries, 
Thomas  Legh,  one  of  the  visitors,  says,  in  writing  to  Cromwell,  22  August,  1536,  con- 
cerning the  region  between  Coventry  and  Chester :  "  For  certain  of  the  knights 
and  gentlemen,  and  most  commonly  all,  liveth  so  incontinently,  having  their  concu- 
bines openly  in  their  houses,  with  five  or  six  of  their  children,  and  putting  from 
them  their  wives,  that  all  the  country  therewith  be  not  a  little  offended,  and  taketh 
evil  example  of  them"  (Miscellaneous  State  Papers,  London,  1778,  I.  21).  It  perhaps 
would  not  be  easy  to  determine  the  exact  responsibility  of  the  clergy  for  this  im- 
morality of  their  flocks. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  107 

were  not  condemned  by  those  in  authority/  Possibly  it 
was  in  consequence  of  this  that  in  the  following  November 
Henry  issued  a  circular  letter  to  his  bishops  in  which  he 
commanded  them — "  Whereas  we  be  advertised  that 
divers  Priests  have  presumed  to  marry  themselves  contrary 
to  the  custom  of  our  Church  of  England,  Our  Pleasure  is, 
Ye  shall  make  secret  enquiry  within  your  Diocess,  whether 
there  be  any  such  resiant  within  the  same  or  not " — and 
any  such  offenders  who  had  presumed  to  continue  the 
performance  of  their  sacred  functions  were  ordered  to  be 
reported  to  him  or  to  be  arrested  and  sent  to  London.^ 
Curiously  enough,  there  is  no  reference  to  the  subject  in 
the  "  Articles  devised  by  the  Kinges  Highnes  Majestic  to 
stablyshe  Christen  Quietnes  and  Unitie  amonge  us,"  issued 
by  Henry  in  this  year.^ 

Notmthstanding  the  ominous  threat  in  the  letter  to 
the  bishops,  there  appears  about  this  period  to  have  been 
great  uncertainty  in  the  pubhc  mind  respecting  the  state 
of  the  law  and  the  King's  intentions.  Two  letters  happen 
to  have  been  preserved,  written  within  a  few  days  of  each 
other,  in  June  1537,  to  Cromwell,  which  reveal  the  con- 
dition of  opinion  at  the  time.  One  of  these  complains  that 
the  vicar  of  Mendelsham,  in  Suffolk,  has  brought  home  a 
wife  and  children,  whom  he  claims  to  be  lawfully  his  own, 
and  that  it  is  permitted  by  the  King.  Although  "  thys 
acte  by  hym  done  is  in  thys  countre  a  monstre,  and  many 
do  growdge  at  it,"  yet,  not  knowing  the  King's  pleasure, 
no  proceedings  can  be  had,  and  appeal  is  therefore  made 
for  authority  to  prosecute,  lest  "  hys  ensample  wnpon- 
nyched  shall  be  occasion  for  other  carnall  evyll  dysposed 
prestes  to  do  in  lyke  manner."  The  other  letter  is  from  an 
unfortunate  priest  who  had  recently  married,  supposing  it 
to  be  lawful.     The  "  noyse  of  the  peopull,"  however,  had 

1  Strype,  Eccles.  Memorials,  Vol.  I.  Append,  p.  176. 

2  Burnet's  Collect.  I.  362. 

3  Formularies  of  Faith,  Oxford,  1856.— Wilkins  III.  826. 


108  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

just  informed  him  that  a  royal  order  had  commanded  the 
separation  of  such  unions,  and  he  had  at  once  sent  his  wife 
to  her  friends,  three-score  miles  away.  He  therefore 
hastens  to  make  his  peace,  protesting  he  had  sinned 
through  ignorance,  though  he  makes  bold  to  argue  that 
"  yf  the  kyngys  grace  could  have  founde  yt  laufuU  that 
prestys  mught  have  byn  maryd,  they  wold  have  byn  to  the 
crowne  dubbyll  and  dubbyll  faythefull ;  furste  in  love, 
secondly  for  fere  that  the  byschoppe  of  Rome  schuld  sette 
yn  hys  powre  unto  ther  desolacyon."  ^ 

It  is  evident  from  these  letters  that  there  was  still  a 
genuine  popular  antipathy  to  clerical  marriage,  and  yet 
that  the  royal  supremacy  was  so  firmly  established  by 
Henry's  ruthless  persecutions  that  this  antipathy  was  held 
subject  to  the  pleasure  of  the  court,  and  could  at  any 
moment  have  been  dissipated  by  proclamation.  In  fact, 
the  only  wonder  is  that  any  convictions  remained  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  had  seen  the  objects  of  their  pro- 
foundest  veneration  made  the  sport  of  avarice  and  derision. 
Stately  churches  torn  to  pieces,  the  stone  sold  to  sacrile- 
gious builders,  the  lead  put  up  at  auction  to  the  highest 
bidder,  the  consecrated  bells  cast  into  cannon,  the  sacred 
vessels  melted  down,  the  holy  relics  snatched  from  the 
shrines  and  treated  as  old  bones  and  ofFal,  the  venerated 
images  burned  at  Smithfield — all  this  could  have  left  little 
sentiment  of  respect  for  worn-out  religious  observances  in 
those  who  watched  and  saw  the  sacrilege  remain  un- 
punished. 

Notwithstanding  the  reforming  influences  with  which 
he  was  surrounded,  Henry  sternly  adhered  to  the  position 
which  he  had  assumed.^     When,  in  1538,  the  princes  of 

1  Suppression  of  Monasteries,  pp.  160-1. 

2  He  made  one  exception.  Nuns  professed  before  the  age  of  21  were  at  liberty 
to  marry  after  the  dissolution  of  their  houses,  whereat,  according  to  Dr.  London, 
they  "be  wonderfull gladde  .  .  .  and  do  pray  right  hartely  for  the  kinges  majestie'' 
(Suppression  of  Monasteries,  p.  214). 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  109 

the  Schmalkaldic  League  offered  to  place  him  at  its  head, 
and  even  to  alter,  if  possible,  the  Augsburg  Confession  so 
as  to  make  it  a  common  basis  of  union  for  all  the  elements 
of  opposition  to  Rome,  Henry  was  well  inclined  to  obtain 
the  political  advantages  of  the  position  tendered  him,  but 
hesitated  to  accept  it  until  all  doctrinal  questions  should 
be  settled.  The  three  points  on  which  the  Germans 
insisted  were  the  communion  in  both  elements,  the  wor- 
ship in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  the  marriage  of  the  clergy. 
In  the  Convocation  of  that  year  a  series  of  questions  was 
submitted  for  decision  embracing  the  contested  points, 
and  the  clergy  decided  in  favour  of  celibacy,  private 
masses,  and  communion  in  one  element.^  Thus  sustained, 
Henry  was  firm,  and  the  ambassadors  of  the  League  spent 
two  months  in  conferences  with  the  English  bishops  and 
doctors  without  result.  On  their  departure  (5  August, 
1538),  they  addressed  him  a  letter  arguing  the  subjects  in 
debate — the  refusal  of  the  cup,  private  masses,  and  sacer- 
dotal celibacy — to  which  Henry  replied  at  some  length, 
defending  his  position  on  these  topics  with  no  little  skill 
and  dexterity,  and  refusing  his  assent  finally.^  The  re- 
formers, however,  did  not  yet  despair,  and  the  royal 
preachers  even  ventured  occasionally  to  debate  the  pro- 
priety of  clerical  marriage  freely  before  him  in  their 
sermons,  but  in  vain.^  An  epistle  which  Melanchthon 
addressed  to  him  in  April  1539,  arguing  the  same  questions 
again,  had  no  better  effect.* 

In  the  spring  of  1539  Henry  renewed  negotiations  with 
the  German  princes,  and  his  envoys,  in  soliciting  another 
visit  from  deputies  of  the  League,  held  out  some  vague 
promises  of  his  yielding  on  the  point  of  celibacy.     The 

1  Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  320. 

2  Burnet  I.  254-55 ;  Collect.  332,  347. 

3  Nothing  has  yet  been  settled  concerning  the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  although 
some  persons  have  very  freely  preached  before  the  king  upon  the  subject." — John 
Butler  to  Conrad  Pellican  (Froude,  III.  381). 

4  Burnet,  Collect.  I.  329. 


no  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Germans  in  turn,  to  show  their  earnest  desire  for  union 
with  England,  submitted  a  series  of  propositions  in  which 
they  suggested  that  the  marriage  of  priests  might  be  left 
to  the  discretion  of  the  Pope,  and  that  if  it  were  to  be 
prohibited  only  persons  advanced  in  life  should  be  ordained/ 
Both  parties,  however,  were  too  firmly  set  in  their  opinions 
for  accord  to  be  possible.  Notwithstanding  any  seeming 
hesitation  caused  by  the  policy  of  the  moment,  Henry's 
mind  was  fully  made  up,  and  the  consequences  of  en- 
deavouring to  persuade  him  against  his  prejudices  soon 
became  apparent.  Even  while  the  negotiations  were  in 
progress  he  had  issued  a  series  of  injunctions  degrading 
from  the  priesthood  all  married  clergy,  and  threatening 
with  imprisonment  and  his  displeasure  all  who  should 
thereafter  marry.  ^  Argumentation  confirmed  his  opinions, 
and  he  proceeded  to  enforce  them  on  his  subjects  in  his 
own  savage  manner,  "  for  though  on  all  other  points  he 
had  set  up  the  doctrines  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,"  yet 
on  these  he  had  committed  himself  as  a  controversialist, 
and  the  worst  passions  of  polemical  authorship — the  true 
"  odium  theologicum  " — acting  through  his  irresponsible 
despotism,  rendered  him  the  cruellest  of  persecutors.  But 
a  few  weeks  after  receiving  the  letter  of  Melanchthon,  he 
answered  it  in  cruel  fashion. 

In  May  a  new  Parliament  met,  chosen  under  great 
excitement,  for  the  people  were  inflamed  on  the  subject 
of  religion,  and  animosities  ran  high.  The  principal  object 
of  the  session  was  known  to  be  a  settlement  of  the  national 
Church,  and  as  the  reformers  were  in  a  minority  against 
the  court,  the  temper  of  the  Houses  was  not  likely  to  be 
encouraging   for   them.^     On    May    5,   a  week  after   its 

1  Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  I.  339,  343. 

2  Ibid.  844.— Wilkins  III.  847. 

3  Yet  the  moderate  party  ventured  to  submit  to  Parliament  "  A  Device  for  extir- 
pating Heresies  among  the  People,"  among  the  suggestions  of  which  was  a  bill  for 
abolishing  ecclesiastical  celibacy,  legalising  all  existing  marriages,  and  permitting 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  111 

assembling,  a  committee  was  appointed,  at  the  King's 
request,  to  take  into  consideration  the  differences  of 
reUgious  opinion,  On  the  16th,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
who  was  not  a  member  of  the  committee,  reported  that 
no  agreement  could  be  arrived  at,  and  he  therefore  laid 
before  the  House  of  Lords,  for  full  discussion,  articles 
embracing — 1.  Transubstantiation ;  2.  Communion  in 
both  kinds ;  3.  Vows  of  Chastity ;  4.  Private  Masses ; 
5.  Sacerdotal  Marriages ;  and  6.  Auricular  Confession. 
Cranmer  opposed  them  stoutly,  arguing  against  them  for 
three  days,  and  especially  endeavouring  to  controvert  the 
third  and  fifth,  which  enjoined  celibacy,  but  his  efforts 
and  those  of  his  friends  were  vain,  when  pitted  against 
the  known  wishes  of  the  King,  who  himself  took  an  active 
part  in  the  debate,  and  argued  in  favour  of  the  articles 
with  much  vigour.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Six  Articles  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  On 
May  30  the  Chancellor  reported  that  the  House  had 
agreed  upon  them,  and  that  it  was  the  King's  pleasure 
"  that  some  penal  statute  should  be  enacted  to  compel  all 
his  subjects  who  were  in  any  way  dissenters  or  cohtra- 
dicters  of  these  articles  to  obey  them."  The  framing  of 
such  a  bill  was  entrusted  to  two  committees,  one  under 
the  lead  of  Cranmer,  the  other  under  that  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  and  they  were  instructed  to  lay  their 
respective  plans  before  the  King  within  forty-eight  hours. 
Of  course  the  report  of  the  Archbishop  of  York  was 
adopted.  Introduced  on  June  7,  Cranmer  again  resisted 
it  gallantly,  but  it  passed  both  Houses  by  the  14th,  and 
received  the  royal  assent  on  the  28th.  It  was  entitled 
"  An  Act  for  abolishing  Diversity  of  Opinions  in  certain 
Articles  concerning  Christian  Religion,"  and  it  stands  as  a 
monument  of  the    cruel    legislation  of  a  barbarous  age. 

the  clergy  in  general  "  to  have  wives  and  work  for  their  living  " — Rolls  House  MS. 
(Froude,  III.  381.) 


112  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

The  Third  Article  was  "  that  Priests  after  the  order  of 
Priesthood  might  not  marry  by  the  Law  of  God " ;  the 
Fourth,  "  that  Vows  of  Chastity  ought  to  be  observed  by 
the  Law  of  God,"  and  those  who  obstinately  preached  or  dis- 
puted against  them  were  adjudged  felons,  to  suffer  death 
without  benefit  of  clergy.  Any  opposition,  either  in  word 
or  writing,  subjected  the  offender  to  imprisonment  during 
the  King's  pleasure,  and  a  repetition  of  the  offence  con- 
stituted a  felony,  to  be  expiated  with  the  Hfe  of  the  culprit. 
Priestly  marriages  were  declared  void,  and  a  priest  persisting 
in  living  with  his  wife  was  to  be  executed  as  a  felon.  Con- 
cubinage was  punishable  with  deprivation  of  benefice  and 
property,  and  imprisonment,  for  a  first  offence ;  a  second 
lapse  was  visited  with  a  felon's  death,  while  in  all  cases  the 
wife  or  concubine  shared  the  fate  of  her  partner  in  guilt, 
Quarterly  sessions  were  provided,  to  be  held  by  the 
bishops  and  other  commissioners  appointed  by  the  King, 
for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  these  laws,  and  the  accused 
were  entitled  to  trial  by  jury.^  Vows  of  chastity  were 
only  binding  on  those  who  had  taken  them  of  their  own 
free  will  when  over  twenty-one  years  of  age.^  According 
to  the  Act,  the  wives  of  priests  were  to  be  put  away  by 

1  Burnet,  I.  258-9. — 31  Henry  VIII.  c.  xiv.  Mr.  Froude  endeavours  to  relieve 
Henry  of  the  responsibility  of  this  measure,  and  quotes  Melanchthon  to  show  that 
its  cruelty  is  attributable  to  Gardiner  (Hist.  Engl.  III.  395).  He  admits,  however, 
that  the  bill  as  passed  diflEers  but  slightly  from  that  presented  by  the  king  himself, 
with  whom  the  committee  which  framed  it  must  have  acted  in  concert.  According 
to  Strype,  *'  The  Parliament  men  said  little  against  this  bill,  but  seemed  all  unani- 
mous for  it ;  neither  did  the  Lord  Chancellor  Audley,  no,  nor  the  Lord  Privy  Seal, 
Cromwel,  speak  against  it :  the  reason  being,  no  question,  because  they  saw  the  king 
so  resolved  upon  it.  .  .  .  Nay,  at  the  very  same  time  it  passed,  he  (Cranmer)  stayed 
and  protested  against  it,  though  the  king  desired  him  to  go  out,  since  he  could  not 
consent  to  it.  Worcester  (Latimer)  also,  as  well  as  Sarum  (Shaxton),  was  committed 
to  prison  ;  and  he,  as  well  as  the  other,  resigned  up  his  bishopric  upon  the  act." — 
(Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Book  i.  Chap.  19.)  This  shows  us  how  the  royal  influence 
was  used.  Cranmer,  indeed,  in  his  reply  to  the  Devonshire  rebels,  when  in  1549 
they  demanded  the  restoration  of  the  Six  Articles,  expressly  asserts  "  that  if  the 
king's  majesty  himself  had  not  come  personally  into  the  Parliament  house,  those 
lawes  had  never  passed  "  (Ibid.  App.  No.  XL.). 

2  31  Henry  VIII.  c.  6  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  536-40). 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  113 

June  24,  but  on  that  day,  as  the  Act  was  not  yet  signed, 
an  order  was  mercifully  made  extending  the  time  to 
July  12.^ 

Cranmer  argued,  reasonably  enough,  that  it  was  a 
great  hardship,  in  the  case  of  the  ejected  monks,  to  insist 
on  the  observance  of  the  vow  of  chastity,  when  those  of 
poverty  and  obedience  were  dispensed  with,  and  when  the 
unfortunates  had  been  forcibly  deprived  of  all  the  advan- 
tages, safeguards,  and  protection  of  monastic  life.^  The 
matter,  however,  was  not  decided  by  reason,  but  by  the 
whimsical  perversity  of  a  self-opinionated  man,  who  unfor- 
tunately had  the  power  to  condense  his  polemical  notions 
in  the  blood  of  his  subjects. 

To  comprehend  the  full  iniquity  of  this  savage  measure, 
we  must  remember  the  rapid  progress  which  the  new 
opinions  had  been  making  in  England  for  twenty  years ; 
the  tacit  encouragement  given  them  by  the  suppression  of 
the  religious  houses,  and  by  the  influence  of  the  King's 
confidential  advisers ;  and  the  hopes  naturally  excited  by 
Henry's  quarrel  with  Rome  and  negotiations  with  the 
League  of  Schmalkalden.  In  spite,  therefore,  of  the 
comparatively  mild  punishments  hitherto  imposed  on 
priestly  marriage,  which  were  no  doubt  practically  almost 
obsolete,  such  unions  may  safely  be  assumed  as  numerous. 
Even  Cranmer  himself,  the  primate  of  Henry's  Church, 

1  Pari.  Hist.  I.  540. 

There  is  a  story  current  that  soon  after  the  passage  of  the  Act,  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, who  had  had  so  much  to  do  with  it,  on  meeting  a  former  chaplain  of  his  named 
Lawney,  jocularly  said  to  him,  "  Oh,  my  Lawney  "  (knowing  him  of  old  much  to  favour 
priests'  matrimony),  "  whether  may  priests  now  have  wives  or  no  ?  "  "  If  it  please 
your  grace,"  replied  he,  "  I  cannot  well  tell  whether  priests  may  have  wives  or  no, 
but  well  I  wot,  and  am  sure  of  it,  for  all  your  Act,  that  wives  will  have  priests." — 
Strype's  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  book  i.  chap.  viii. 

2  Dr.  London  chronicles  the  troubles  of  this  class.  *'I  perceyve  many  of  the 
other  sortt,  monkes  and  chanons,  whiche  be  yonge  lustie  men,  allways  fatt  fedde, 
lyving  in  ydelnes  and  at  rest,  be  sore  perplexide  that  now  being  prestes  they  may 
nott  retorn  and  marye  "  (Suppression  of  Monasteries,  p.  215). 

Nicander  Nucius  asserts  that  many  did  marry  openly — dWovs  dk  yvmhas  ivvbfius 
ffVvevvov%  daayofx^vovs  "  (op.  cit.  p.  71). 

VOL.  II.  H 


114  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

was  twice  married,  his  second  wife,  then  hving,  the  niece 
of  Osiander,  being  kept  under  a  decent  veil  of  secrecy  in 
his  palace/  When,  after  his  fruitless  resistance  to  the  Six 
Articles,  the  bill  was  passed,  he  sent  his  wife  to  her  friends 
in  Germany,  until  the  death  of  his  master  enabled  him  to 
bring  her  back  and  acknowledge  her  openly ;  ^  but  vast 
numbers  of  unfortunate  pastors  could  not  have  had  the 
opportunity,  and  perhaps  lacked  the  self-control,  thus  to 
arrange  their  domestic  affairs.  Even  the  gentle  Melanch- 
thon  was  moved  from  his  ordinary  equanimity,  and  ven- 
tured to  address  to  his  royal  correspondent  a  remonstrance 
expressing  his  horror  of  the  cruelty  which  could  condemn 
to  the  scaffold  a  man  whose  sole  guilt  consisted  in  not 
abandoning  the  wife  to  whom  he  had  promised  fidelity 
through  good  and  evil,  before  God  and  man — a  cruelty 
which  could  find  no  precedent  in  any  code  that  man  had 
previously  dared  to  frame.  ^ 

As  might  be  expected,  numerous  divorces  of  married 
priests  followed  this  Draconian  legislation,  and  these 
divorces  were  held  good  by  the  Act  of  1549,  which  under 

^  His  first  marriage  was  entered  into  while  he  was  still  quite  young,  and  before 
he  had  taken  orders.  The  second,  however,  shows  that  he  acted  with  some  inde- 
pendence, for  it  took  place  in  1531,  before  Henry's  open  rupture  with  Eome,  and 
while  he  was  ambassador  to  the  Emperor.  At  that  time  he  was  King's  chaplain  and 
Archdeacon  of  Taunton,  and  his  nuptials  therefore  were  plainly  an  indication  of 
heresy. — Strype's  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  book  i.  chap,  iii.,  book  iii.  chap,  xxvii. 

2  Burnet  I.  256-7.  It  was  not  until  1543  that  he  ventured  to  confess  this  to  the 
King  (Ibid.  p.  328).  At  his  trial  in  1556  his  two  marriages  were  one  of  the  points  of 
accusation  against  him  (Ibid.  II.  339). 

Saunders,  in  commenting  upon  Cranmer's  time-serving  disposition,  which  enabled 
him  to  accommodate  himself  to  Henry's  capricious  opinions,  and  yet  to  enter  fully 
into  the  reformatory  ideas  predominant  under  Edward  VI.,  does  not  fail  to  satirise 
his  connubial  propensities.  "  Unum  illud  molestissime  tamen  ferens,  quod  mere- 
tricem  quandam  suam  non  poterat  palam  uxoris  loco  libere  habere,  quia  id  non 
laturum  Henricum  sciebat,  sed  partim  domi  eam  occultare,  partim  cum  f oras  prodiret, 
cista  quadam  ad  id  affabre  facta  inclusam,  secum  una  circumferre  cogeretur.  Iste 
ergo  jam  desiit  esse  Henricianus,  et  tam  ex  immatura  regis  Edouardi  aetate  quam  ex 
Protectoris  in  sectas  summa  propensione,  suae  statim  simul  et  libidini  et  hseresi 
habenas  laxandas  statuit ;  nam  et  scorto  suo  mox  est  publico  pro  uxore  usus,  et 
catechismum  Edouardo  dedicatum,  falsse  impiaeque  doctrinfe  plenum,  in  lucem 
edidit."— De  Orig.  et  Prog.  Schismatis  Anglicani,  p.  193  (Ed.  1586). 

3  Melanchthon.  Epist.  Ed.  1565,  p.  34. 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  115 

Edward  VI.  granted  full  liberty  in  the  premises  to  eccle- 
siastics/ Even  Henry,  however,  began  to  feel  that  he 
had  gone  too  far,  and  the  influence  of  Cromwell  was  suffi- 
cient to  prevent  the  harshest  features  of  the  law  from 
being  enforced  in  all  their  odious  severity,  especially  as  the 
projected  marriage  with  Ann  of  Cleeves  and  the  alliance 
with  the  German  Lutherans  rendered  active  persecution 
in  the  highest  degree  impolitic.  When  the  comedy  of 
Henry's  fourth  marriage  culminated  in  the  tragedy  of 
Cromwell's  ruin  (June  1540),  the  reactionary  elements 
again  gathered  strength.  There  can  be  httle  doubt 
that  the  atrocity  of  the  law  had  greatly  interfered  with  its 
efficient  execution  and  had  aroused  popular  feeling,  for  now, 
although  the  Vicar-General  was  removed,  the  Catholics 
passed  with  speedy  alacrity  a  bill  moderating  the  Act  of 
the  Six  Articles,  in  so  far  as  it  related  to  marriage  and 
concubinage.  For  capital  punishment  was  substituted  the 
milder  penalty  of  confiscation  to  the  King  of  all  the  pro- 
perty and  revenue  of  the  offenders.^ 

The  Six  Articles,  as  thus  modified,^  remained  the  law 
of  England  during  the  concluding  years  of  Henry's  reign, 
nor  is  it  likely  that  any  one  ventured  to  urge  upon  him 
seriously  a  relaxation  of  the  principles  to  which  he  had 
committed  himself  thus  definitely.  The  fall  of  Cromwell 
and  the  danger  to  which  Cranmer  was  exposed  for  several 
years  were  sufficient  to  insure  him  against  troublesome 
remonstrants,  even  if  his  increasing  irritability  and  capri- 
ciousness  had  not  made  those  around  him  daily  more  alive 

1  2-3  Edw.  VI.  c.  21  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  586.) 

2  32  Hen.  VIII.  c.  10.— Burnet  I.  282.— Pari.  Hist.  I.  575. 

3  Kichard  Hilles,  writing  in  1541  to  Henry  Bullinger,  assumes  that  this  modifica- 
tion of  the  Six  Articles  only  applied  to  those  who  were  guilty  of  incontinence,  and 
that  it  did  not  "  appear  to  the  King  at  all  extreme  still  to  hang  those  clergymen  who 
marry  or  who  retain  those  wives  whom  they  had  married  previous  to  the  forme 
statute  "  (Original  Letters,  Parker  Soc.  Pub.  p.  205)— but  both  Burnet  and  the  Par 
liamentory  History  make  no  such  distinction,  and  in  the  abstract  of  the  bill  as 
printed  in  the  Statutes  at  Large  (I.  281)  it  is  described  as  applicable  to  "  priests 
married  or  unmarried." 


116  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

to  the  danger  of  thwarting  or  resisting  his  idlest  humour. 
How  Httle  progress,  indeed,  the  Reformation  had  thus  far 
made  in  England  is  shown  in  a  letter  written  in  1546  by 
John  Hooper,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  Wor- 
cester, during  the  exile  into  which  he  was  forced  by  the 
Act  of  the  Six  Articles :  "  Our  King  has  destroyed  the 
Pope,  but  not  popery ;  he  has  expelled  all  the  monks  and 
nuns,  and  pulled  down  their  monasteries  ;  he  has  caused 
all  their  possessions  to  be  transferred  into  his  exchequer, 
and  yet  they  are  bound,  even  the  frail  female  sex,  by  the 
King's  command,  to  perpetual  chastity.  England  has  at 
this  time  at  least  ten  thousand  nuns,  not  one  of  whom  is 
allowed  to  marry.  The  impious  Mass,  the  most  shameful 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  the  invocation  of  saints,  auricular 
confession,  superstitious  abstinence  from  meats,  and  pur- 
gatory, were  never  before  held  by  the  people  in  greater 
esteem  than  at  the  present  moment."  ^ 

On  28  January,  1547,  Henry  VIII.  died,  and 
Edward  VI.  succeeded  to  the  perilous  throne.  Not  yet 
ten  years  of  age,  his  government  of  course  received  its 
direction  from  those  around  him,  and  the  rivalry  between 
the  Protector  Somerset  and  the  Chancellor  Wriothesley, 
Earl  of  Southampton,  threw  the  former  into  the  hands  of 
the  progressives,  as  the  latter  was  the  acknowledged  head 
of  the  reactionary  party.  The  ruin  of  Southampton  and 
the  triumph  of  Somerset,  strengthened  by  his  successful 
campaign  in  Scotland,  soon  began  to  develop  their  natural 
consequences  on  the  religion  of  the  country.  Under  the 
auspices  of  Cranmer,  a  Convocation  was  assembled,  which 
was  empowered  to  decide  all  questions  in  controversy. 
When  the  primate  was  anxious  to  again  enjoy  the  solace 
of  his  wife's  company  and  to  relieve  both  her  and  himself 
from  the  stigma  of  concubinage,  it  is  easy  to  understand 
that  the  subject  of  cehbacy  would  receive  early  and  appro- 

1  Hooper  to  BuUinger.— Original  Letters,  Parker  Soc.  Pub.  p.  36. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  117 

priate  attention ;  and  so  confident  were  the  reformers  of 
success  that  they  did  not  hesitate  to  enter  into  matrimony 
without  waiting  for  any  formal  sanction.^     Accordingly,  on 
17  December,  1547,  a  proposition  was  submitted  to  the 
effect  that  all  canons,  statutes,  laws,  decrees,  usages,  and 
customs,  interfering  with  or  prohibiting  marriage,  should 
be  abrogated,  and  it  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  53  to  22. 
No  time  was  lost.     Two  days  afterwards  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Commons    permitting  married  men  to  be 
priests  and  to  hold  benefices.     It  was  received  with  so 
much  favour  that  it  was  read  twice  the  same  day,  and  on 
the  21st  it  was  sent  up  to  the  Lords ;  but  in  the  Upper 
House  it  raised  debates  so  prolonged  that,  as  the  members 
were  determined  to  adjourn  before  Christmas,  it  was  laid 
aside.     This  might  be  the  more  readily  agreed  to,  since  on 
the  23rd  an  Act  was  approved  which  abolished  numerous 
severe  laws  of  the  former  reign,  including  the  statute  of 
the  Six  Articles,  and  was  immediately  followed  by  another 
granting  the  use  of  the  cup  to  the  laity  and  prohibiting 
private  Masses.^ 

The  repeal  of  the  Six  Articles  left  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy  subject  to  the  previous  laws  of  Henry,  imposing  on 
it  various  pains  and  penalties,  but  with  the  votes  recorded 
in  Convocation  and  Parliament,  it  is  not  likely  that  much 
vigour  was  displayed  in  their  enforcement.  Those  inter- 
ested could  thus  afford  to  await  the  reassembling  of  the 
Houses,  which  did  not  take  place  until  24  November,  1548, 
but  they  claimed  the  reward  of  their  patience  by  an  early 
hearing  in  the  session.     On  December  3  a  biU  was  intro- 

1  Thus  Dr.  Parker,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was  married  on  June 
24,  1547,  within  six  months  after  Henry's  death,  to  Margaret,  daughter  of  Robert 
Harlston  of  Mattishall.  As  he  had  been  in  priest's  orders  since  1527,  he  assumed  a 
liberty  which  was  not  even  asked  of  Parliament  until  nearly  eighteen  months  later 
(see  his  autobiographical  memoranda  in  his  Correspondence,  pp.  vii.,  x.,  Parker  Soc. 
1853). 

2  1  Edw.  I.  c.  1,  12  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  582-4).— Wilkins  IV.  16.— Burnet  II.  40,  41 
III.  189. 


118  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

duced,  similar  to  that  of  the  previous  year,  rendering 
married  men  ehgible  to  the  priesthood  :  it  passed  second 
reading  on  the  5th,  and  third  reading  on  the  6th.  Appa- 
rently encouraged  by  the  favourable  reception  accorded  to 
it,  the  friends  of  the  measure  resolved  on  demanding 
further  privileges.  The  bill  was  therefore  laid  aside,  and 
on  the  next  day  a  new  one  was  presented  which  granted 
the  additional  liberty  of  marriage  to  those  already  in  orders. 
It  conceded  to  the  established  opinions  the  fact  that  it 
were  better  that  the  clergy  should  live  chaste  and  single, 
yet,  "  as  great  filthiness  of  living  had  followed  on  the  laws 
that  compelled  chastity  and  prohibited  marriage,"  there- 
fore all  laws  and  canons  inhibiting  sacerdotal  matrimony 
should  be  abolished.  This  bill,  after  full  discussion,  was 
read  a  second  and  third  time  on  the  10th  and  12th,  and 
was  sent  up  to  the  Lords  on  the  13th.  Again  the  Upper 
House  was  in  no  haste  to  pass  it.  It  lay  on  the  table 
until  9  February,  1549,  when  it  was  stoutly  contested,  and, 
after  being  recommitted,  it  finally  passed  on  the  19th,  with 
the  votes  of  nine  bishops  recorded  against  it.^ 

Cranmer  and  his  friends  were  now  at  full  liberty  to 
establish  the  innovation  by  committing  the  clergy  indivi- 
dually to  marriage,  and  by  enlisting  the  popular  feeling  in 
its  support.  During  the  discussion  they  had  not  been  idle. 
Much  controversial  writing  had  occurred  on  both  sides,  in 
which  Poynette,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Winchester,  took  an 
active  part,  while  Bale,  Bishop  of  Ossory,  distinguished 
himself  on  the  same  side  by  raking  together  all  the  foul 
stories  that  could  be  collected  concerning  the  celibate 
clergy — a  scandalous  material  not  likely  to  be  lacking  in 
either  quantity  or  quality.  Burnet  declares  that  no  law 
passed  during  the  reign  of  Edward  excited  more  contradic- 
tion and  censure,  and  the  matrimonialists  soon  found  that, 
even  with  the  Act  of  Parliament  in  their  favour,  their 

1  2-3  Edw.  VI.  c.  21  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  586).— Burnet  II.  88-9. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  119 

course  was  not  wholly  a  smooth  one.     Cranmer  ordered  a 
visitation  in  his  province,  and  directed  as  one  of  the  points 
for  inquiry  and  animadversion,  "  Whether  any  do  contemn 
married  priests,  and,  for  that  they  be  married,  will  not 
receive   the   Communion   or   other   sacraments    at    their 
hands,"  ^  which  distinctly  reveals  the  difficulties  encountered 
in  eradicating  the  convictions  of  centuries  from  the  popu- 
lar  mind.     Sanders  says,  and  with  every  appearance  of 
probability,   that   the  Archbishop   of  York   united  with 
Cranmer   in  ordering  a  visitation  of  the  whole  kingdom, 
during   which   the  visitors   investigated   particularly   the 
morals  of  the  clergy,  and  used  every  argument  to  impel 
them  to  marriage,  not  only  declaring  celibacy  to  be  most 
dangerous  to  salvation,  but  intimating  that  all  who  adhered 
to  it  would  be  regarded  as  papists  and  enemies  of  the  King.^ 
The  active  interest  which  Cranmer  took  in  the  question  is 
manifested  by  the  fact  that  when  Dr.  Richard  Smith,  who 
had  fled  to  Scotland  in  consequence  of  having  endeavoured 
to  stir  up  a  tumult  at  Oxford  against  Peter  Martyr,  desired 
to  make  his  peace  and  return,  the  inducement  which  he 
offered  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  obtain  for  him 
the  King's  pardon  was  that  he  would  write  a  book  in  favour 
of  priestly  marriage,  as  he  had  previously  done  against  it.^ 
The   reformers  speedily  found  that  they  were  not  to 
escape   without   opposition.     The   masses   of  the  people 

1  Wilkins  IV.  26. — Cardwell's  Documentary  Annals,  I.  59.  Wilkins  andCardwell 
date  this  in  1547,  which  is  evidently  impossible.  Burnet  (II.  102)  alludes  to  it  under 
1549,  which  is  much  more  likely  to  be  correct. 

2  Sanderi  Schisma  Anglic,  pp.  214-5. 

3  Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Bk,  ii.  chap.  14. — Smith  subsequently  at 
Louvain  continued  to  urge  the  necessity  of  celibacy,  and  was  answered  by  Peter 
Martyr.  Strype  calls  him  a  filthy  fellow,  notorious  for  lewdness,  and  his  champion- 
ship of  chastity .  excited  some  merriment.  There  is  an  epigram  upon  him  by 
Lawrence  Humphrey — 

"  Haud  satis  affabre  tractans  fabrilia  Smithus 
Librum  de  vita  ccelibe  composuit 
Dumque  pudicitiam,  dum  vota  monastica  laudat, 
Stuprat,  sacra  notans  fcedera  conjugii." 

(Ibid.  Chap.  25.) 


120  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

throughout  England  were  in  a  state  of  discontent.     The 
vast  body  of  abbey  lands  acquired  by  the  gentry  and  now 
enclosed  bore  hard  upon  many  ;  the  raising  of  rents  showed 
that  secular  landlords  were  less  charitable  than  the  ancient 
proprietors  of  the  soil ;   the  increase  of  sheep-husbandry 
threw  many  farm  labourers  out  of  employ  ;  ^  and  the  savage 
enactments,  already  alluded  to,  against  the   unfortunate 
expelled  monks  show  how  large  an  element  of  influential 
disaffection   was   actively  at  work  in  the  substratum  of 
society.      Those    priests   who   disapproved   of  the   rapid 
Protestantising  process  adopted  by  the  court  could  hardly 
fail  to  take  advantage  of  opportunities  so  tempting,  and 
they  accordingly  fanned  the  spark  into  a  flame.     The  en- 
forcement   of  the   new  liturgy,   on   Whitsunday,    1549, 
seemed  the  signal  of  revolt.     Numerous  risings  took  place, 
which  were  readily  quelled,  until  one  in  Devonshire  as- 
sumed alarming  proportions.     Ten  thousand  men  in  arms 
made  demands  for  relief  in  religious  as  well  as  temporal 
matters.     Lord  Russel,  unable  to  meet  them  in  the  field, 
endeavoured  to  gain  time  by  negotiation,  and  offered  to 
receive  their  complaints.     These  were  fifteen  in  number, 
of  which  several  demanded  the  restoration  of  points  of  the 
old  religion,  and  one  insisted  on  the  revival  of  the  Six 
Articles.     On  their  refusal,  another  set  was  drawn  up,  in 
which  not  only  were  the  Six  Articles  called  for,  but  also  a 
special   provision   enforcing  the   celibacy   of  the   clergy. 
This  was  likewise  rejected  ;  but  during  the  delay  another 
rising  occurred  in  Norfolk,  reckoned  at  twenty  thousand 
men,  and  yet  another  of  less  formidable  dimensions  in 
Yorkshire.     Russel  finally  scattered  the  men  of  Devon, 
while  the  Earl  of  Warwick  succeeded  in  suppressing  the 

1  The  vast  growth  of  the  sheep-farms  had  long  been  a  subject  of  complaint. 
Even  as  early  as  1516,  Sir  Thomas  More  describes  with  indignant  energy  the  misery 
caused  by  the  ejectment  of  the  agricultural  population  in  order  to  form  enormous 
sheep-walks,  which  were  found  more  profitable  to  the  landlords  than  ordinary  farming. 
He  declares  that  the  sheep  "  tam  edaces  atque  indomitse  esse  coeperant,  ut  homines 
devorent  ipsos,  agros,  domos,  oppida  vastent  ac  depopulentur." — Utopia,  Lib.  I. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  121 

rebels  of  Norfolk,  when  the  promise  of  an  amnesty  caused 
the  Yorkshiremen  to  disperse.^ 

The  question  of  open  resistance  thus  was  settled. 
Cranmer  and  his  friends  had  now  leisure  to  consolidate 
their  advantages  and  organise  a  system  that  should  be 
permanent.  In  1551,  he  and  Ridley  prepared  with  great 
care  a  series  of  forty-two  articles,  embodying  the  faith  of 
the  Church  of  England,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Convo- 
cation in  1552,  and  was  ordered  to  be  signed  by  all  men  in 
orders  and  all  candidates  for  ordination.^  Burnet  speaks 
of  it  as  bringing  the  Anglican  doctrine  and  worship  to 
perfection.  It  remained  unaltered  during  the  rest  of 
Edward's  reign,  and  under  Elizabeth  it  was  only  modified 
verbally  in  the  recension  which  resulted  in  the  famous 
Thirty-nine  Articles — the  foundation-stone  of  the  Episco- 
palian edifice.  Of  these  forty-two  articles,  the  thirty-first 
declared  that  "  Bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  are  not  com- 
manded by  God's  law  to  vow  the  estate  of  a  single  life  or 
to  abstain  from  marriage."^ 

The  canon  law  had  thus  invested  the  marriage  of  the 
clergy  with  all  the  sanctity  that  the  union  of  man  an^i, 
wife  could  possess.  Yet  still  the  deep-seated  conviction 
of  the  people  as  to  the  impropriety  of  such  proceedings 
remained,  troubling  the  repose  of  those  who  had  entered 
into  matrimony,  and  doubtless  operating  as  a  restraint 
upon  the  numbers  of  the  imitators  of  Cranmer.  Among 
the  interrogatories  drawn  up  by  John  Hooper  for  the 
visitation  of  his  diocese  of  Gloucester,  in  1552,  is  one 
which  inquires  whether  any  midwife  refuses  to  attend  the 
confinement  of  women  who  are  married  to  ministers  of  the 
Church  * — a  suggestion  which  indicates  how  rooted  was  the 

1  Burnet  II.  117-9. 

2  Strype's  Eccles.  Memorials,  II.  420. 

3  Burnet  II.  Collect.  217.  In  the  Latin  version,  "Episcopis,  presbyteris  et 
diaconis  non  est  mandatum  ut  [coeUbatum  voveant  ;  neque,  jure  divino  coguntur 
matrimonio  abstinere  "  ( Wilkins  IV.  76). 

4  Strype's  Eccles.  Memorials,  II.  355. 


122  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

popular  aversion  from  such  matches.  If  Strype's  descrip- 
tion of  the  clergy  of  the  period  indeed  be  correct,  there 
was  nothing  in  the  character  of  the  body  to  overcome  the 
popular  aversion  in  consideration  of  its  purity  and  devotion 
to  its  sacred  duties/  The  Act  of  1549  had  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent justified  these  prejudices  by  admitting  the  preferable- 
ness  of  a  single  life  in  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  remove  every  possible  stigma  by  a  solemn 
declaration  of  Parliament.  A  bill  was  therefore  prepared 
and  speedily  passed  (10  February,  1552),  which  reveals 
how  strong  was  the  popular  opposition,  and  how  uncertain 
the  position  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the  clergy.  It 
declares  "  That  many  took  occasion,  from  the  words  in  the 
Act  formerly  made  about  this  matter,  to  say  that  it  was 
only  permitted,  as  usury  and  other  unlawful  things  were, 
for  the  avoidance  of  greater  evils,  who  thereupon  spoke 
slanderously  of  such  marriages,  and  accounted  the  children 
begotten  in  them  to  be  bastards,  to  the  high  dishonour 
of  the  King  and  Parliament,  and  the  learned  clergy  of  the 
realm,  who  had  determined  that  the  laws  against  priests' 
marriages  were  most  unlawful  by  the  law  of  God  ;  to  which 
they  had  not  only  given  their  assent  in  the  Convocation, 
but  signed  it  with  their  hands.  These  slanders  did  also 
occasion  that  the  Word  of  God  was  not  heard  with  due 
reverence."  It  was  therefore  enacted  "  That  such  mar- 
riages made  according  to  the  rules  prescribed  in  the  Book 
of  Service  should  be  esteemed  good  and  valid,  and  that 
the  children  begot  in  them  should  be  inheritable  according 
to  law."  ^ 

A  still  further  confirmation  of  the  question  was 
designed  in  a  body  of  ecclesiastical  law  which  was  for 
several  years  in  preparation  by  various  commissions 
appointed  for   the   purpose.     In  this  it  was  proposed  to 

1  Strype's  Ecoles.  Memorials,  II.  p.  445. — "Our  curate  is  naught,  an  Assehead,  a 
Dodipot,  a  Lack-Latine,  and  can  do  nothing." 

2  5-6Edw.VI.  0.  12  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  594).— Burnet  II.  192. 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  123 

make  the  abrogation  of  celibacy  even  more  distinctly  a 
matter  of  faith,  for  in  the  second  Title  among  the  various 
heresies  condemned  is  that  which,  through  the  suggestion 
of  the  Devil,  asserts  that  admission  to  holy  orders  takes 
away  the  right  to  marry.  This  work,  however,  though 
completed,  had  not  yet  received  the  royal  assent  when  the 
death  of  Edward  VI.  caused  it  to  pass  out  of  sight  until 
1571,  when  it  was  printed  by  Foxe  and  brought  to  the 
attention  of  Parliament,  but  was  laid  aside  owing  to  the 
opposition  of  Queen  Elizabeth.^ 

If  the  Protestants  indulged  in  any  day-dreams  as  to  the 
permanency  of  their  institutions,  they  were  not  long  in 
finding  that  a  change  of  rulers  was  destined  to  cause  other 
changes  disastrous  to  their  hopes.  Even  the  funeral  of 
Edward,  on  the  8th  of  August,  1553,  afforded  them  a 
foretaste  of  what  was  in  store.  Although  Cranmer  insisted 
that  the  public  ceremonies  in  Westminster  Abbey  should 
be  conducted  according  to  the  reformed  rites.  Queen  Mary, 
still  resident  in  the  Tower,  had  private  obsequies  per- 
formed with  the  Roman  ritual,  where  Gardiner  celebrated 
mortuary  Mass  in  presence  of  the  Queen  and  some  four 
hundred  attendants.  When  the  incense  was  carried  around, 
after  the  Gospel,  it  chanced  that  the  chaplain  who  bore  it 
was  a  married  man,  and  the  zealous  Dr.  Weston  snatched 
it  from  him,  exclaiming,  "  Shamest  thou  not  to  do  thine 
office,  having  a  wife  as  thou  hast  ?  The  Queen  will  not  be 
censed  by  such  as  thou  !  "  ^ 

Trifling  as  was  this  incident,  it  foreboded  the  wrath  to 
come.  Though  Mary  was  not  crowned  until  October  1st,  she 
had  issued  writs  for  a  Parliament  to  assemble  on  the  10th, 

1  Reform.  Legg.  Eccles.  Tit.  de  Hasresibus,  cap.  xx.  (Cardwell's  Ed.,  Oxford, 
1850,  p.  20).— (7/.  Tit.  de  Matrimonio  c.  ix.  (p.  44). 

2  Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  III.  20.  This  story  derives  additional  piquancy  from 
the  fact  that  this  Dr.  Weston  was  somewhat  notorious  for  uncleanness,  and  was 
subsequently  deprived  of  the  Deanery  of  Windsor  for  adultery  (Ibid.  pp.  111-2). 


124  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

and  as  an  entire  change  in  the  rehgious  institutions  of  the 
country  was  intended,  we  may  not  uncharitably  beheve 
the  assertion  that  every  means  of  influence  and  intimida- 
tion was  employed  to  secure  the  return  of  reactionary 
members.  These  efforts  were  crowned  with  complete 
success.  The  Houses  had  not  sat  for  three  weeks,  when  a 
bill  was  sent  down  from  the  Lords  repealing  all  the  Acts 
of  Edward's  reign  concerning  religion,  including  specifically 
those  which  permitted  the  marriage  of  priests  and 
legitimated  their  offspring ;  and  after  a  debate  of  six 
days  it  passed  the  Commons.^ 

The  effect  of  this  was,  of  course,  to  revive  the  statute 
of  the  Six  Articles,  and  to  place  all  married  priests  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Queen  ;  and  as  soon  as  she  felt  that  she  could 
safely  exercise  her  power,  she  brought  it  to  bear  upon  the 
offenders.  A  day  or  two  after  the  dissolution  of  Parlia- 
ment she  commenced  by  issuing  a  proclamation  inhibiting 
married  priests  from  officiating.^  The  Spanish  marriage 
being  agreed  upon  and  the  resultant  insurrection  of  Sir 
Thomas  Wyatt  being  suppressed,  Mary  recognised  her  own 
strength,  and  her  Romanising  tendencies,  which  had 
previously  been  somewhat  restrained,  became  openly 
manifested.  On  the  4th  of  March  1554  she  issued  a 
letter  to  her  bishops,  of  which  the  object  was  to  restore 
the  condition  of  affairs  under  Henry  VIII.,  except  that 
the  royal  prerogatives  as  head  of  the  Church  were  expressly 
disavowed.  It  contained  eighteen  articles,  to  be  strictly 
enforced  throughout  all  dioceses.  Of  these  the  seventh 
ordered  that  the  bishops  should  by  summary  process 
remove  and  deprive  all  priests  who  had  been  married  or 
had  lived  scandalously,  sequestrating  their  revenues  during 
the  proceedings.  Article  VIII.  provided  that  widowers, 
or  those  who  promised  to  live  in  the  strictest  chastity, 

1  1  Mary  c.  2  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  609-10).— Burnet  II.  255. 

2  Strype's  Eccles.  Memorials,  III.  52. 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  125 

should  be  treated  with  leniency,  and  receive  livings  at  some 
distance  from  their  previous  abode,  being  properly  supported 
meanwhile ;  while  Article  IX.  directed  that  those  who 
suffered  deprivation  should  not  on  that  account  be  allowed 
to  live  with  their  wives,  and  that  due  punishment  should 
be  inflicted  for  all  contumacy/ 

No  time  was  lost  in  carrying  out  these  regulations.  By 
the  9th  of  the  same  month  a  commission  was  already  in 
session  at  York,  which  cited  the  clergy  to  appear  before  it 
on  the  12th.  From  an  appeal  which  is  extant,  by  one 
Simon  Pope,  rector  of  Warmington,  it  appears  that  men 
were  deprived  without  citation  or  opportunity  for  defence  ;  ^ 
and  that  this  was  not  infrequent  is  probable  from  the  pro- 
ceedings commenced  against  offenders  of  the  highest  class, 
designed  and  well  fitted  to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts 
of  the  humbler  parsons.  On  the  16th  a  commission  was 
issued  to  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  (Stephen  Gardiner), 
London  (Bonner),  Durham,  St.  Asaph's,  Chichester,  and 
Llandaff,  to  investigate  the  cases  of  the  Archbishop  of  York 
and  the  Bishops  of  St.  Davids,  Chester,  and  Bristol,  who, 
according  to  report,  had  given  a  most  pernicious  example 
by  taking  wives,  in  contempt  of  God,  to  the  damage 
of  their  own  souls,  and  to  the  scandal  of  all  men.  Any 
three  of  the  commissioners  were  empowered  to  summon 
the  accused  before  them,  and  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the 

1  Burnet  II.  Append.  264.  According  to  Strype,  Bonner's  impatience  did  not 
wait  for  the  royal  injunctions,  for  in  February  he  deprived  of  their  livings  all  the 
married  priests  in  his  diocese  of  London,  and  commanded  them  to  bring  all  their 
wives  within  a  fortnight,  in  order  that  they  might  be  divorced. — Memorials  of 
Cranmer,  Bk.  iii.  chap.  8. 

Julius  III.  issued  a  bull,  8  March,  1554,  defining  Cardinal  Pole's  legatine  powers, 
among  which  was  that  of  removing  the  excommunication  from  married  clerks  and 
legitimating  their  children,  the  fathers  being  removed  from  function  and  benefice, 
separated  from  their  wives,  and  subjected  to  penance  (Cardwell's  Documentary 
Annals,  I.  131).  This  was  the  course  adopted  for  a  time,  but  as  the  kingdom 
was  not  yet  formally  reconciled  to  Rome,  the  action  had  was  under  the  local 
authorities. 

2  Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  III.  Append.  33.— In  the  same  place  (p.  31)  maybe 
found  a  copy  of  the  summons  served  upon  offenders  of  this  class. 


126  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

report  without  legal  delays  or  unnecessary  circumlocution . 
If  it  were  found  correct,  then  they  were  authorised  to 
remove  the  offenders  at  once  and  for  ever  from  their 
dignities,  and  also  to  impose  penance  at  discretion.  This 
was  scant  measure  of  justice,  considering  that  the  marriage 
of  these  prelates  had  been  contracted  under  sanction  of  law, 
and,  if  that  law  had  recently  been  repealed,  that  at  least 
the  option  of  conforming  to  the  new  order  of  things  could 
not  decently  be  denied  ;  yet  even  this  mockery  of  a  trial 
was  apparently  withheld,  for  the  conge  deli?^e  for  their 
successors  is  dated  March  18th,  only  two  days  after  the 
commission  was  appointed/  Neither  party,  in  fact,  had 
much  ceremony  in  dealing  with  bishops.  Five  had  been 
deprived  under  Edward  VI.  ;  under  Mary  there  were 
fourteen  deprivations,  and  under  Elizabeth  fifteen.^ 

During  the  summer  the  bishops  went  on  their  visita- 
tions. The  articles  prepared  by  Bonner  for  his  diocese  are 
extant,  among  which  we  find  directions  to  inquire  parti- 
cularly of  the  people  whether  their  pastors  are  married, 
and,  if  separated,  whether  any  communication  or  inter- 
course takes  place  between  them  and  their  wives  ;  also 
whether  any  one,  lay  or  clerical,  ventures  to  defend 
sacerdotal  matrimony.^  Few  of  the  weaker  brethren 
could  escape  an  inquisition  so  searching  as  this,  and  though 
some  controversy  arose,  and  a  few  tracts  were  printed  in 
defence  of  priestly  marriage,*  such  men  as  Bonner  were  not 

1  Burnet  II.  275  and  Append.  256.— Eymer  (T.  XV.  pp.  376-77)  gives  a  similar 
commission  dated  March  9,  issued  to  Stephen  Gardiner  to  eject  the  canons  and  pre- 
bendaries of  Westminster  in  the  same  summary  manner.  The  proceedings  through- 
out England  were  doubtless  framed  on  these  models. 

2  W.  H.  Frere,  The  Marian  Keaction  in  its  relation  to  the  English  Clergy, 
p.  24  (London,  1896). 

Bishop  Bird,  of  Chester,  who  was  deprived  March  20,  1554,  repudiated  his  wife, 
became  vicari  of  Dunmow,  and  then  suffragan  of  Bishop  Bonner,  of  London. — 
Ibid.  p.  23. 

3  Burnet  II.  Append.  260. 

4  Bishop  Poynette  wrote  a  book  entitled  "  An  Apologie  on  the  Godly  Marriadge 
of  Priestes,"  in  rejoinder  to  Martin's  "  Traictise  declaryng  and  plainly  prouying 
that  the  pretensed  marriage   of  priestes  and  professed  persones  is  no  marriage," 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  127 

likely  to  shrink  from  the  thorough  prosecution  of  the  work 
which  whey  had  undertaken. 

When  the  Convocation  assembled  in  this  year,  it  was 
therefore  to  be  expected  that  only  orthodox  opinions  would 
find  expression.  Accordingly,  the  Lower  House  presented 
to  the  bishops  an  humble  petition  praying  for  the  restora- 
tion of  the  old  usages,  among  the  points  of  which  are 
requests  that  married  priests  be  forcibly  separated  from 
their  wives,  and  that  those  who  endeavour  to  abandon 
their  order  be  subjected  to  special  animadversion.  This 
clause  shows  that  many  unfortunates  preferred  to  give 
up  their  positions  and  lose  the  means  of  livelihood,  rather 
than  quit  the  wives  to  whom  they  had  sworn  fidelity, 
demanding,  as  we  shall  see,  much  subsequent  conflicting 
legislation.  The  social  complications  resulting  from  the 
change  of  religion  are  also  indicated  in  the  request  that 
married  nuns  may  be  divorced,  and  that  the  pretended 
wives  of  priests  have  full  liberty  to  marry  again. 

Everything  being  thus  prepared,  the  purification  of  the 
Church  from  married  heretics  was  prosecuted  with  vigour. 
Archbishop  Parker  states  that  there  were  in  England  some 
16,000  clergymen,  of  whom  12,000  were  deprived  on  this 
account,  many  of  them  most  summarily ;  some  on  common 
report,  without  trial,  others  without  being  summoned  to 
appear  before  their  judges,  and  others  again  while  lying  in 
jail  for  not  obeying  the  summons.  Some  renounced  their 
wives,  and  were  yet  deprived,  while  those  who  were 
deprived  were  also,  as  we  have  seen,  forced  to  part  with 
their  wives.  We  can  readily  believe  that  the  most  ordinary 
forms  of  justice  were  set  aside,  in  view  of  the  illegal  and 
indecorous  haste  of  the  proceedings  against  the  married 
bishops   described   above,   but   Parker's   estimate   of  the 

which  was  a  reply  to  Poynette's  previous  work.     Bale  also  issued  a  bitter  attack 
on  Bonner's  Articles  (Card well's  Documentary  Annals,  I.  135),  and  Dr.  Parker,  after- 
wards Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  published  a  voluminous  rejoinder  to  Martin. 
1  Wilkins  IV.  96-7. 


128  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

number  of  sufferers  is  greatly  exaggerated.  According  to 
the  latest  investigator,  Mr.  Frere,  the  number  of  beneficed 
clergy  deprived  in  London  was  150,  to  whom  perhaps  about 
half  as  many  unbeneficed  may  be  added.  At  Canterbury, 
where  the  records  seem  complete,  the  number  was  68 ;  in 
Norfolk,  343.  The  registers  elsewhere  are  mostly  too 
imperfect  to  allow  of  satisfactory  estimates,  but  the  general 
conclusion  is  drawn  that  throughout  the  kingdom  about 
one  in  every  five  or  six  beneficed  priests  was  deprived, 
substantially  all  for  marriage,  and  of  these  a  certain  pro- 
portion succeeded  in  being  reconciled  and  restored.^  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  the  list  throughout  England  would 
not  exceed  three  thousand  ;  but  this  is  sufficient  to  indicate 
that  the  privilege  of  wedlock  had  been  embraced  with 
considerable  eagerness. 

The  proceedings  in  the  case  of  John  Turner,  rector  of 
St.  Leonard's,  London,  would  seem  to  show  that  the 
extremity  of  humiliation  was  inflicted  on  these  unfor- 
tunates. Cited  on  March  16  to  answer  to  the  charge  of 
being  a  married  man,  he  confessed  the  accusation,  and  we 
find  him  on  March  19  condemned  to  lose  his  benefice  and 
be  suspended  from  all  priestly  functions,  to  be  divorced 
from  his  wife,  and  to  undergo  such  further  punishment  as 
the  canons  required.  The  sentence  of  divorce  soon  fol- 
lowed, and  on  May  14  he  was  obliged  to  do  penance  in  his 
late  church  in  Eastcheap,  holding  a  lighted  candle  in  his 
hand  and  solemnly  declaring  to  the  assembled  congregation 
— *'  Good  people,  I  am  come  hither,  at  this  present  time, 

1  Burnet  II.  276  ;  III.  225-6.— Frere,  op.  cit.,  pp.  47,  49,  53,  77,  78. 

A  specimen  of  the  form  of  restitution  subscribed  by  those  who  were  restored  on 
profession  of  amendment  and  repencance  has  been  preserved  :  "  Whereas  ...  I  the 
said  Kobert  do  now  lament  and  bewail  my  life  past,  and  the  offence  by  me  com- 
mitted ;  intending  firmly  by  God's  grace  hereafter  to  lead  a  pure,  chaste,  and  con- 
tinent life  .  .  .  and  do  here  before  my  competent  judge  and  ordinary  most  humbly 
require  absolution  of  and  from  all  such  censures  and  pains  of  the  laws  as  by  my 
said  offence  and  ungodly  behaviour  I  have  incurred  and  deserved  :  promising  firmly 
.  .  .  never  to  return  to  the  said  Agnes  Staunton  as  to  my  wife  or  concubine,"  &c. — 
(WilkinsIV.  104.) 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  120 

to  declare  unto  you  my  sorrowful  and  penitent  heart,  for 
that,  being  a  priest,  I  have  presumed  to  marry  one  Amy 
German,  widow  ;  and,  under  pretence  of  that  matrimony, 
contrary  to  the  canons  and  custom  of  the  Universal  Church, 
have  kept  her  as  my  wife,  and  lived  contrary  to  the  canons 
and  ordinances  of  the  Church,  and  to  the  evil  example  of 
good  Christian  people  ;  whereby  now,  being  ashamed  of 
my  former  wicked  living  here,  I  ask  Almighty  God  mercy 
and  forgiveness,  and  the  whole  Church,  and  am  sorry  and 
penitent  even  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  therefor. 
And  in  token  hereof,  I  am  here,  as  you  see,  to  declare  and 
show  unto  you  my  repentance  :  that  before  God,  on  the 
latter  day,  you  may  testify  with  me  of  the  same.  And  T 
most  heartily  and  humbly  pray  and  desire  you  all,  whom 
by  this  evil  example  doing  I  have  greatly  offended,  that  for 
your  part  you  will  forgive  me,  and  remember  me  in  your 
prayers,  that  God  may  give  me  grace,  that  hereafter  I  may 
live  a  continent  life,  according  to  His  laws  and  the  godly 
ordinances  of  our  mother  the  holy  Catholic  Church, 
through  and  by  His  grace.  And  do  here,  before  you  all, 
openly  promise  for  to  do  during  my  life."  ^  Such  scenes  as 
these  were  well  calculated  to  produce  the  effect  desired 
upon  the  people,  but  we  can  only  guess  at  the  terrorism 
which  was  requisite  to  force  educated  and  respectable  men 
to  submit  to  such  degradation. 

All  this  was  done  by  the  royal  authority  wielding  the 
ecclesiastical  power  usurped  by  Henry  VIII.  Strictly 
speaking,  it  was  highly  irregular  and  uncanonical,  but  as 
the  papal  supremacy  was  yet  in  abeyance,  it  could  not  be 
accomplished  otherwise.  At  last,  however,  the  kingdom 
was  ripe  for  reconciliation  with  Rome.  In  calling  the 
Parhament  of  1554,  the  Queen  issued  a  circular  letter  to 

1  Strype's  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  Bk.  ill.  chap.  8.— Nov.  14,  1554,  we  find  a 
record  of  four  priests  doing  penance  in  white  shirts  and  holding  candles  at  Paul's 
Cross,  London,  while  Harpsfield  preached  a  sermon.— Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  III. 
203. 

VOL.  II.  I 


130  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  sheriffs  commanding  them  to  admonish  the  people  to 
return  members  "  of  the  wise,  grave,  and  CathoHc  sort."  ^ 
Her  wishes  were  fulfilled,  and  ere  the  year  was  out  Car- 
dinal Pole  was  installed  with  full  legatine  powers,  and 
Julius  III.  had  issued  his  bull  of  indulgence,  reuniting 
England  to  the  Church  from  which  she  had  been  violently 
severed.  An  obedient  Parliament  lost  no  time  in  repeal- 
ing all  statutes  adverse  to  the  claims  of  the  Holy  See,  but 
its  subserviency  had  limits,  and  one  class  largely  inte- 
rested in  the  reforms  of  Henry  had  sufficient  influence  to 
maintain  its  heretical  rights.  The  Church  lands  granted  or 
sold  to  laymen  were  not  restored.  Indeed,  the  Queen, 
in  her  call  for  the  Parliament,  had  felt  it  necessary  to 
contradict  the  rumour  that  she  and  Philip  intended  the 
"  alteration  of  any  particular  man's  possessions."  Though 
the  transactions  by  which  they  had  been  acquired  were 
wholly  illegal,  though  no  duration  of  possession  could  bar 
the  imprescriptible  rights  of  the  Church,  yet  the  nobles  and 
country  gentlemen  enriched  by  the  spoliation  were  too 
numerous  and  powerful,  and  the  reclamation  of  the  king- 
dom was  too  important,  to  incur  any  peril  by  unseasonably 
insisting  on  reparation  for  Henry's  injustice.  The  abbatial 
manors  and  rich  priories,  the  chantries,  hospitals,  and 
colleges,  were  therefore  left  in  the  impious  hands  of  those 
who  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  secure  them,^  and  the 
miserable  remnants  of  the  religious  orders  were  left  to  the 
conscience  of  the  Queen,  who  made  haste  to  get  rid  of 

1  Pari.  Hist.  I.  616. 

2  The  bull  is  dated  24  December,  1554  (Wilkins  IV.  111).— Parliament  repealed 
the  attainder  of  Cardinal  Pole,  November  22,  and  on  the  24th  he  arrived  in  London 
as  legate  (Burnet  II.  261-2). 

3  1  and  2  Phil,  and  Mary  c.  8  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  624).  The  title  of  the  bill  shows 
that,  though  the  Parliament  was  almost  exclusively  Catholic,  it  was  disposed  to 
make  its  obedience  to  Eome  the  price  for  obtaining  confirmation  of  the  abbey  lands 
— "  A  Bill  for  repealing  all  statutes,  articles,  and  provisoes  made  against  the  See 
Apostolique  of  Rome,  since  the  20th  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  for  the  establishment 
of  all  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  possessions  and  hereditaments  conveyed  to  the 
laity." 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  131 

such  fragments  of  the  spoil  as  had  been  retained  by  the 
Crown.  ^ 

Whatever  tacit  understanding  there  may  have  been  on 
this  dehcate  subject  between  Queen  Mary  and  Pope 
Juhus  was  not  assented  to  by  the  imperious  CarafFa,  who 
shortly  afterwards  ascended  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 
Elected  23  May,  1555,  he  lost  no  time  in  proclaiming  the 
imprescriptible  rights  of  the  Church,  and  by  his  bull  "  in- 
junctum  nobis,"  issued  June  21,  he  pronounced  null  and 
void  "  de  apostohcse  potestatis  plenitudine  "  all  transactions 
by  which  ecclesiastical  possessions  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  laymen,  who  were  duly  threatened  with  excom- 
munication for  prolonged  attempts  to  hold  their  un- 
hallowed acquisitions.^  The  effort  of  course  was  fruitless, 
but  the  spirit  in  which  the  Enghsh  Protestants  watched 
the  apparent  opening  of  a  breach  between  England  and 
Rome  is  well  expressed  in  a  letter  of  23  August,  1555,  from 
Sir  Richard  Morrison  to  Henry  Bullinger  :  "  This  anti-Paul, 
Paul  of  the  apostasy,  the  servant  of  the  devil,  this  anti- 
christ newly  created  at  Rome,  thinks  it  but  a  very  small 
plunder  that  is  offered  to  him,  that  he  is  again  permitted 
in  England  to  tyrannise  over  our  consciences,  unless  the 
revenues  be  restored  to  the  monasteries,  that  is,  the  pig- 
sties ;  the  patrimony,  as  he  calls  it,  of  the  souls  that  are 
now  serving  in  the  filth  of  purgatory.  Our  ambassadors, 
who  went  to  Rome  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  back  the 
wolf  upon  the  sheep  of  Christ,  are  now  with  the  Emperor, 
and  bring  us  these  demands  of  the  chief  pontiff;  God 
grant  that  he  may  urge  them  in  every  possible  way."  ^ 
The  hopes  of  the  reformers,  however,  were  disappointed, 
for  Paul  IV.  gave  way,  and  on  the  reassembling  of  Parlia- 
ment, 23  October,  1555,  a  bull  was  read  by  which  the 


1  2  and  3  Phil,  and  Mary,  c.  4  (Pari.  Hist.  pp.  626-8). 

2  Mag.  Ball.  Roman.  T.  I.  p.  809. 

3  Original  Letters,  Parker  Soc.  Pub.  p.  149, 


132  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Pope  assented  to  the  arrangement  agreed  to  by  Cardinal 
Pole,  confirming  the  Church  lands  to  their  new  possessors/ 

Cardinal  Pole,  indeed,  was  not  remiss  in  giving  the 
sanction  of  the  papal  authority  to  all  that  had  been 
done.  Convoking  a  synod,  he  issued  in  1555  his  Lega- 
tine  Constitutions,  by  which  all  marriages  of  those  included 
in  the  prohibited  orders  were  declared  null  and  void.  Such 
apostates  were  ordered  to  be  separated  by  ecclesiastical 
censures  and  by  whatever  legal  processes  might  be  re- 
quired ;  all  who  dared  to  justify  such  marriages  or  to 
remain  obstinately  in  their  unholy  bonds  were  to  be  prose- 
cuted rigorously  and  punished  according  to  the  ancient 
canons,  which  were  revived  and  declared  to  be  in  full  force 
in  order  to  prevent  similar  scandals  for  the  future.^  As  the 
Queen  by  special  warrant  had  decreed  that  all  canons 
adopted  by  synods  should  have  the  full  effect  of  laws 
binding  on  the  clergy,  these  constitutions  at  once  restored 
matters  to  their  pristine  condition.  It  was  doubtless  in 
order  to  mark  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  his  detesta- 
tion of  clerical  marriage  that  Pole  descended  to  the  petti- 
ness of  ordering  the  body  of  Peter  Martyr's  wife  to  be  dug 
up  from  its  resting-place,  near  the  tomb  of  St.  PVideswide 
in  Christ's  Church,  Oxford,  and  to  be  buried  in  a  dung- 
hill.^ 

It  was  easy  to  pass  decrees  ;  it  was  doubtless  gratifying 
to  eject  married  priests  by  the  thousand  and  to  grant  their 
livings  to  hungry  reactionaries  or  to  the  crowd  of  needy 

1  Pari   Hist.  I.  626  ;  II.  342. 

2  Card.  Poll  Constit.  Legat.  Decret.  v.  (Wilkins  IV.  800). 

3  Strype's  Parker,  Book  ii.  chap.  vi.  In  1561  the  remains  were  exhumed  from 
the  stables  of  Dr.  Marshall,  the  previous  dean  of  Christ's  Church,  and  reburied  in 
the  church,  the  precaution  being  taken  of  mingling  them  with  the  bones  of  St. 
Frideswide,  so  as  to  prevent  any  future  profanation  in  case  of  another  revolution 
of  religion.  The  affair  excited  considerable  attention  at  the  time,  and  produced  the 
following  epigram  : 

**  Femineum  sexum  Romani  semper  amarunt  : 
Projiciunt  corpus  cur  muliebre  foras  ? 
Hoc  si  tu  quaeras,  facilis  responsio  danda  est : 
Corpora  non  curant  mortua,  viva  petunt." 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  133 

Churchmen  whom  Italy  had  ever  ready  to  supply  the 
spiritual  wants  and  collect  the  tithes  of  the  faithful.  All 
this  was  readily  accomplished,  but  the  difficulty  lay  in 
overcoming  the  eternal  instincts  of  human  nature.  The 
struggle  to  effect  this  commenced  at  once. 

It  was,  indeed,  hardly  to  be  expected  that  those  who 
had  entered  into  matrimony  with  the  full  conviction  of  its 
sanctity  would  willingly  abandon  all  intercourse  with  their 
wives,  although  they  might  yield  a  forced  assent  to  the 
pressure  of  the  laws,  the  prospect  of  poverty,  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  infamous  punishment.  Accordingly,  we  find  that 
the  necessity  at  once  arose  of  watching  the  "  reconciled  " 
priests,  who  continued  to  do  in  secret  what  they  could  no 
longer  practise  openly.  Some,  indeed,  found  the  restric- 
tions so  onerous  that  they  endeavoured  to  release  them- 
selves from  the  bonds  of  the  Church  rather  than  to  submit 
longer  to  the  separation  from  their  wives ;  and  this  appa- 
rently threatened  so  great  a  dearth  in  the  ranks  of  the 
clergy  that  Cardinal  Pole,  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
in  1556  forbade  the  withdrawal  of  any  one  from  the  mys- 
teries and  functions  of  the  altar,  under  pain  of  the  law.^ 

Notwithstanding  all  i;his  legislation,  royal,  parliamen- 
tary, and  ecclesiastical,  the  question  refused  to  settle 
itself,  and  the  Convocation  which  assembled  on  the  1st  of 
January  1557  was  obliged  to  publish  an  elaborate  series 
of  articles,  which  demonstrated  that  previous  enactments 
had  either  not  been  properly  observed,  or  that  they  had 
failed  in  effecting  their  purpose.  Thus  the  prohibition  of 
marriage  to  those  in  priests'  orders  was  formally  renewed. 
Such  of  the  married  clergy,  who  had  undergone  penance 
and  had  been  restored,  as  still  persisted  in  holding  inter- 

1  "Thatnoue  of  those  priests  that  were,  under  the  pretence  of  lawful!  matri- 
mony, married,  and  now  reconciled,  do  privilie  resorte  to  their  pretensed  wives,  or 
suffer  the  same  to  resorte  unto  them.  And  that  those  priests  do  in  no  wise  hence- 
forth withdrawe  themselves  from  the  mynisterie  and  office  of  priesthodde  under 
the  paine  of  the  lawes  "—Pole's  Injunctions  in  Diocese  of  Gloucester  (Wilkins 
IV.  146). 


134  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

course  with  their  separated  wives,  were  to  be  deprived 
irrevocably  of  their  office,  and  only  to  be  admitted  to 
lay  communion — thus  reversing  the  policy  of  Cardinal 
Pole's  injunctions.  As  all  priests  who  had  been  married 
were  obnoxious  to  the  people,  they  were  to  be  removed 
from  the  priesthood  ;  or  at  least,  on  account  of  the 
scarcity  of  ministers,  to  act  only  as  curates,  and  to  be 
incapable  of  holding  benefices  until  a  proper  course  of 
penance  should  have  washed  away  their  sins.  Even 
then,  in  no  case  were  they  to  officiate  in  the  dioceses 
wherein  they  had  been  married,  but  were  to  be  removed 
to  a  distance  of  at  least  sixty  miles ;  and  if  detected  in 
any  intercourse  with  their  wives,  they  were  to  incur  severe 
punishment,  a  single  interchange  of  words  being  sufficient 
to  call  down  the  penalty.  To  ensure  the  observance  of 
these  rules,  all  synods  were  directed  to  make  special  inquiry 
into  the  lives  of  these  unfortunates,  who  were  thus  to 
exist  under  a  perpetual  surveillance,  at  the  mercy  of 
inimical  spies  and  informers.^  This  may,  perhaps,  be 
considered  a  moderate  expiation  for  men  who,  in  those 
days  of  fierce  religious  convictions,  possessed  that  flexi- 
bility of  faith  which  enabled  them  to  change  their  belief 
with  every  dynastic  accident. 

If  the  rigid  rules  now  introduced  were  successful  in 
nothing  else,  they  at  all  events  succeeded  in  restoring  the 
old  troubles  with  the  old  canons.  Denied  the  lawful 
gratification  of  human  instincts,  the  clergy  immediately 
returned  to  the  habits  which  had  acquired  for  them  so 
much  odium  in  times  past,  and  the  rulers  of  the  Church 
at  once  found  themselves  embarked  in  the  sempiternal 
struggle  with  immorality  in  all  its  shapes  and  disguises. 

,  1  Wilkins  IV.  157.  Thus  in  the  visitation  of  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,  the  vicar 
of  Spaldwick  was  presented  for  scandalising  his  flock  by  carrying  in  his  arms  his 
child  by  a  wife  from  whom  he  had  been  separated.  At  the  same  time  a  priest  of 
Caisho  named  Nix  was  subjected  to  penance  for  consorting  with  his  former  wife,  but 
was  permitted  to  resume  his  functions. — Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  III.  293. 


THE  ANGLO-ROMAN  CHURCH  135 

If  the  scandalous  chronicles  of  the  period  be  worthy  of 
credit,  neither  Gardiner  nor  Bonner,  nor  other  active 
promoters  of  the  canons,  were  without  the  visible  evidences 
of  the  frailty  of  the  flesh ;  ^  and  though  they  were  above 
the  reach  of  correction,  the  minor  clergy  were  not  so 
fortunate.  The  Convocation  of  1557,  which  issued  the 
stringent  regulations  just  quoted,  was  also  obliged  to 
promulgate  articles  concerning  the  residence  of  women 
with  priests,  and  the  punishment  of  licentiousness,  similar 
to  those  which  we  have  seen  reproduced  so  regularly  for 
ten  centuries.  Cardinal  Pole,  too,  in  his  visitation  of  the 
same  year,  directed  inquiries  to  be  made  on  these  points  in 
a  manner  which  shows  that  they  were  existing  and  not 
merely  anticipated  evils.  ^ 

Fortunately  for  the  character  of  the  Anglican  clergy, 
the  reign  of  reaction  was  short.  On  17  November,  1558, 
Queen  Mary  closed  her  unhappy  life,  and  Cardinal  Pole 
followed  her  within  sixteen  hours.  The  Marian  persecu- 
tion had  been  long  enough  and  sharp  enough  to  give  to 
heresy  all  the  attractions  of  martyrdom,  thus  increasing 
its  fervour  and  enlarging  its  circle  of  earnest  disciples ;  and 
the  sudden  termination  of  that  persecution,  before  it  had 
time  to  accomplish  its  work  of  extirpation,  left  the  re- 
formers more  zealous  and  dangerous  than  ever.  Heresy 
had  likewise  been  favoured  by  the  discontent  of  the  people 
arising  from  the  disastrous  and  expensive  war  with  France, 
which  aided  the  improvident  restoration  of  the  Church 
lands  in  impoverishing  the  exchequer  and  in  rendering 
necessary  heavy  subsidies  from  the  nation,  repaid  only 
by  cruelty  and  misfortune.  Dread  of  Spanish  influence 
also  had  a  firm  hold  of  the  imagination  of  the  masses, 
while  the  Church  itself  ^^^^as  especially  unpopular,  as  the 

1  Strype's  Eccles.  Memor.  III.  111-12, 

2  Wilkins  IV.  169. 


136  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

conviction  was  general  that  the  ill-success  of  Mary's 
administration  was  attributable  to  the  control  exercised  by- 
ecclesiastics  over  the  public  affairs.  Under  such  auspices 
the  royal  power  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  princess  who, 
though  by  nature  leaning  to  the  Catholic  faith  and  dis- 
posed to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  her  father,  was  yet 
placed  by  the  circumstances  of  her  birth  in  implacable 
hostility  to  Rome,  and  who  held  her  throne  only  on  the 
tenure  of  waging  eternal  warfare  with  reaction.  The 
reformers  felt  that  the  doom  of  Catholicism  was  sealed. 
Emerging  from  their  hiding-places  and  hastening  back 
from  exile,  the  religious  refugees  proceeded  at  once  to 
practise  the  rites  of  Edward  VI.  Elizabeth,  however, 
after  ordering  some  changes  in  the  Roman  observances, 
forbade,  on  December  27,  all  further  innovations  until 
the  meeting  of  Parliament,  which  was  convoked  for 
23  January,  1559. 

Parliament  assembled  on  the  appointed  day,  and  sat 
until  May  8.  It  at  once  passed  Acts  resuming  the  eccle- 
siastical crown  lands  and  restoring  the  royal  supremacy  in 
ecclesiastical  matters,  and  it  repealed  all  of  Mary's  legisla- 
tion concerning  the  power  of  the  papacy.  Several  other 
bills  were  adopted  modifying  the  rehgion  of  the  kingdom, 
with  a  view  of  discovering  some  middle  term  which  should 
unite  the  people  in  a  common  form  of  behef  and  worship.^ 
Anxious  to  avoid  all  extremes,  it  negatived  the  measures 
introduced  by  the  ardent  friends  of  the  Reformation,  and 
among  the  unsuccessful  attempts  was  one  which  proposed 
to  restore  all  priests  who  had  been  deprived  on  account  of 
marriage.  This,  indeed,  was  laid  aside  by  the  special 
command  of  the  Queen  herself.^ 

The  question  of  clerical  marriage  was  thus  left  in  a  most 
perplexed  and  unsatisfactory  condition.     The  Six  Articles 

1  1  Eliz.  c.  1,  2,  4  (Pari.  Hist.  I.  646-76). 

2  Burnet,  II.  386-95. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  137 

had  been  repealed  by  Edward  VI.,  and  had  been  virtually 
revived  by  Mary ;  but  Mary's  efforts  had  been  to  restore 
the  independent  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  and  she  had 
therefore  not  continued  to  regard  the  Six  Articles  as  in 
force,  the  canons  of  synods  and  the  legatine  constitutions 
of  Pole  being  the  law  of  her  ecclesiastical  establishment. 
This  was  now  all  swept  away ;  a  statute  to  fill  the  void 
was  refused,  and  men  were  left  to  draw  their  own  deduc- 
tions and  act  at  their  own  peril.  Elizabeth  refused  the 
sanction  of  law  to  sacerdotal  marriage,  and  would  not 
restore  the  deprived  priests,  yet  she  did  not  enforce  any 
prohibitory  regulations,  and  even  promoted  many  married 
men.  Dr.  Parker,  the  religious  adviser  of  Ann  Boleyn, 
who  had  left  him  in  charge  of  her  daughter's  spiritual 
education,  was  married,  and  one  of  Elizabeth's  earliest 
acts  was  to  nominate  him  for  the  vacant  primacy  of 
Canterbury,  which  after  long  resistance  he  was  forced  to 
accept.  The  uncertainty  of  the  situation  and  the  anxiety 
of  those  interested  are  well  illustrated  by  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Parker,  dated  April  30,  just  before  the  rising  of  Parlia- 
ment, from  Dr.  Sandys,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Worcester : 
"  The  bill  is  in  hand  to  restore  men  to  their  livings  ;  how 
it  wiU  speed  I  know  not  .  .  .  Nihil  est  statutum  de  con- 
jugio  sacerdotum,  sed  tanquam  relictum  in  medio.  Lever 
was  married  now  of  late.  The  Queen's  majesty  will  wink 
at  it,  but  not  stablish  it  by  law,  which  is  nothing  else  but 
to   bastard   our   children."^     In   this   Dr.    Sandys   spoke 

1  Parker's  Correspondence,  p.  66. — Sanders  does  not  fail  to  make  the  most  of 
this  refusal  to  legalise  priestly  marriage  by  Act  of  Parliament,  and  of  the  hesitation 
which  rendered  the  final  decision  a  mere  toleration  and  not  an  approval.  "  Clerus 
enim  in  Anglia  novus,  partim  ex  apostatis  nostris,  partim  ex  hominibus 
mere  laicis  factus,  ut  est  valde  spiritualis,  primo  quoque  tempore  de  nuptiis  cogi- 
tabat  ;  multumque  sategit,  ut  conjugia  Episcoporum  Canonicorum  et  cseterorum 
ministorum  legibus  approbarentur ;  sed  obtineri  non  potuit,  quia  vel  turpe 
videbatur  ministerio,  vel  reipublicse  perniciosum.  Edovardus  quidem  sextus 
omnes  canonicas  et  humanas  prohibitiones  circa  clericorum  aut  etiam  religiosorum 
connubia  lege  comitiali  seu  parlamentaria  sustulerat ;  eam  legem  mox  abrogavit 
Maria,  nunc  restituendam  ac  renovandam  clamitant  isti,  sed  non  exaudiuntur  :  omnes 
tamen  per  totum  fere  regnum  quia  de  dono  [castitatis]  (ut  loquuntur)  non  suntcerti 


138  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

nothing  but  truth,  and  those  who  were  married  were 
obHged  formally  to  have  their  children  legitimated,  as 
even  Dr.  Parker  found  it  necessary  to  do  this  in  the  case 
^f  his  son  Matthew/ 

At  length  Elizabeth  made  up  her  mind,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  her  royal  supremacy  she  asked  for  no  Act  of 
Parliament  to  confirm  her  decree.  Archbishop  Parker 
has  the  credit  of  being  the  most  efficient  agent  in  over- 
coming her  repugnance  to  the  measure,  and  the  ungracious 
manner  in  which  she  finally  accorded  the  permission  shows 
how  strong  were  the  prejudices  which  he  had  to  encounter. 
In  June  1559  she  issued  a  series  of  "  Injunctions  to  the 
Clergy  and  Laity  "  which  restored  the  national  religion  to 
nearly  the  same  position  as  that  adopted  by  Edward  VI., 
and  it  is  curious  to  observe  that  when  she  comes  to  speak 
of  sacerdotal  matrimony  she  carefully  avoids  the  responsi- 
bility of  sanctioning  it  herself,  but  assumes  that  the  law  of 
Edward  is  still  in  force.  All  that  she  does,  therefore,  is 
to  surround  it  with  such  hmitations  and  restrictions  as 
shall  prevent  its  abuse,  and  although  this  form  had  perhaps 
the  advantage  of  establishing  the  legality  of  all  pre- 
existing marriages,  yet  the  regulations  promulgated  were 
degrading  in  the  highest  degree,  and  the  reason  assigned 
for  permitting  it  could  only  be  regarded  as  affixing  a 
stigma  on  every  pastor  who  confessed  the  weakness  of 
his  flesh  by  seeking  a  wife.^ 

non  secundum  leges,  sed  secundum  indulgentiam  ;  vel  (ut  illi  dicunt)  secundum 
scripturas,  sed  ad  libidinem  suam  compositas,  ineunt  prima,  secunda,  vel  etiam 
tertia  conjugia,  contra  canones  et  morem  non  solum  Latinorum  sed  etiam  Graecorum; 
fct  prole  ita  abundant,  ut  ad  illam  sustentandam  opibusque  augendam,  et  populus 
Bupra  modum  gravetur,  et  ipsi  misere  beneficia  sua  expilent." — (De  Schismate 
Anglicano,  Lib.  III.  Ingoldstatii,  1586,  p.  299.) 

1  Strype's  Annals,  I.  81. 

2  Royal  Injunctions  of  1559,  Art.  xxxix.  "  Although  there  be  no  prohibition  by 
the  word  of  God,  nor  any  example  of  the  primitive  Church,  but  that  the  priests  and 
ministers  of  the  Church  may  lawfully,  for  the  avoiding  of  fornication,  have  an  honest 
and  sober  wife,  and  that  for  the  same  purpose  the  same  was  by  Act  of  Parliament  in 
the  time  of  our  dear  brother  King  Edward  the  Sixth  made  lawful,  whereupon  a 
great  number  of  the  clergy  of  this  realm  were  married  and  so  continue ;  yet,  because 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  139 

From  the  temper  of  these  regulations  it  is  manifest 
that  if  Ehzabeth  yielded  to  the  advice  of  her  counsellors 
and  to  the  pressure  of  the  times,  she  did  not  give  up  her 
private  convictions  or  prejudices,  and  that  she  desired  to 
make  the  marriage  of  her  clergy  as  unpopular  and  dis- 
agreeable as  possible.  It  was  probably  for  the  purpose  of 
meeting  her  objections  that  the  order  for  a  return  of  the 
clergy,  issued  by  Archbishop  Parker,  1  October,  1561, 
contained  in  the  blanks  issued  the  unusual  entry  classify- 
ing them  as  married  or  unmarried,^  and  Strype  informs  us 
that  in  the  Archdeaconry  of  London  the  returns  show 
the  ministry  for  the  most  part  to  have  been  filled  with 
married  men.^  Even  the  haughty  spirit  of  the  Tudor 
thus  could  not  restrain  the  progress  which  had  now  fairly 
set  in.  Those  around  her  who  controlled  the  public  affairs 
were  all  committed  to  the  Reformation,  and  were  resolved 
that  every  point  gained  should  be  made  secure.     When, 

there  hath  grown  offence  and  some  slander  to  the  Church,  by  lack  of  discreet  and 
sober  behaviour  in  many  ministers  of  the  Church,  both  in  chusing  of  their  wives  and 
undiscreet  living  with  them,  the  remedy  whereof  is  necessary  to  be  sought ;  it  is 
thought  therefore  very  necessary  that  no  manner  of  priest  or  deacon  shall  hereafter 
take  to  his  wife  any  manner  of  woman  without  the  advice  and  allowance  first  had 
upon  good  examination  by  the  bishop  of  the  same  diocese  and  two  justices  of  the 
peace  of  the  same  shire  dwelling  next  to  the  place  where  the  same  woman  hath  made 
her  most  abode  before  her  marriage  ;  nor  without  the  goodwill  of  the  parents  of  the 
said  woman  if  she  have  any  living,  or  two  of  the  next  of  her  kinsfolks,  or  for  lack  of 
the  knowledge  of  such,  of  her  master  or  mistress  where  she  serveth.  And  before  she 
shall  be  contracted  in  any  place,  he  shall  make  a  good  and  certain  proof  thereof  to 
the  minister  or  to  the  congregation  assembled  for  that  purpose,  which  shall  be  upon 
some  holy  day  where  divers  may  be  present.  And  if  any  shall  do  otherwise,  that 
then  they  shall  not  be  permitted  to  minister  either  the  word  or  the  sacraments  of 
the  Church,  nor  shall  be  capable  of  any  ecclesiastical  benefice.  And  for  the  mar- 
riages of  any  bishops,  the  same  shall  be  allowed  and  approved  by  the  metropolitan 
of  the  province  and  also  by  such  commissioners  as  the  Queen's  Majesty  thereunto 
shall  appoint.  And  if  any  master  or  dean  or  any  head  of  any  college  shall  purpose 
to  marry,  the  same  shall  not  be  allowed  but  by  such  to  whom  the  visitation  of  the 
same  doth  properly  belong,  who  shall  in  any  wise  provide  that  the  same  turn  not  to 
the  hindrance  of  their  house." — (Wilkins  IV,  186.) 

See  also  a  letter  of  Theodore  Beza,  Zurich  Letters,  p.  247  (Parker  Soc.  Publica- 
tions). 

^  Cardwell's  Documentary  Annals,  I.  309. 

2  Strype's  Parker,  Book  ii.  chap.  v. — In  1569  the  returns  for  the  Archdeaconry  of 
Canterbury  show  135  married  clergymen  to  34  licensed  preachers,  and  there  is  no 
mention  of  any  unmarried  men  (Ibid.  in.  xxiv. ). 


140  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

therefore,  in  1563,  there  was  pubUshed  a  recension  of  the 
Forty-two  Articles  issued  by  Edward  VI.  in  1552,  result- 
ing in  the  weU-known  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church 
of  England,  care  was  taken  that  the  one  relating  to  the 
liberty  of  marriage  should  be  made  more  emphatic  than 
before.  Not  content  with  the  simple  proposition  of  the 
original  that  "  Bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  are  not 
commanded  by  God's  law  either  to  vow  the  estate  of  a 
single  life,  or  to  abstain  from  marriage,"  the  emphatic 
corollary  was  added,  "  Therefore  it  is  lawful  for  them  as 
for  all  other  Christian  men  to  marry  at  their  own  dis- 
cretion, as  they  shall  judge  the  same  to  serve  better  to 
godliness  "  ^ — such  as  we  find  it  preserved  to  the  present 
day.  This  specific  declaration  in  a  special  article  marks 
the  necessity  which  was  felt  to  place  the  matter  beyond 
controversy,  as  a  rule  of  practice.  The  articles  on  justi- 
fication and  works  of  supererogation  (Arts  xi.  and  xix.) 
would  have  sufficed,  so  far  as  principle  was  concerned. 

This  was  not  an  empty  form.  Not  only  the  right  to 
marry  at  their  own  discretion,  thus  expressly  declared, 
did  much  to  relieve  them  from  the  degrading  conditions 
laid  down  by  the  Queen,  but  the  revival  and  strengthening 
of  the  article  marked  a  victory  gained  over  the  reaction. 
When  in  1559  the  Queen  appointed  a  commission  to 
visit  all  the  churches  of  England  and  enforce  compliance 
with  the  order  of  things  then  existing,  the  articles  pre- 
pared for  its  guidance  enjoin  no  investigation  into  opinions 
respecting  priestly  marriage,  showing  that  to  be  an  open 
question,  concerning  which  every  man  might  hold  his 
private  belief^  After  the  adoption  of  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles,  however,  this  latitude  was  no  longer  allowed.     In 

1  In  the  English  version,  as  given  by  Burnet  (Vol.  II.  Append.  217),  there  are  42 
articles,  of  which  this  is  the  31st.  In  the  Latin  edition  (Wilkins  IV.  236),  there  are 
but  39  articles,  this  being  the  32nd,  which  is  the  arrangement  according  to  the 
standard  of  the  Anglican  Church. 

2  Wilkins  IV.  189-91. — This  commission  was  the  commencement  of  the  Court  of 
High  Commission,  which  played  so  lamentable  a  part  in  the  troubles  of  the  succeeding 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  141 

1567  Archbishop  Parker's  articles  of  instruction  for  the 
visitation  of  that  year  enumerate,  among  the  heretical 
doctrines  to  be  inquired  after,  the  assertion  that  the  Word 
of  God  commands  abstinence  from  marriage  on  the  part 
of  ministers  of  the  Church/  As  we  shall  see,  it  was  about 
the  same  time  that  the  Council  of  Trent  likewise  erected 
the  question  of  clerical  marriage  into  a  point  of  belief. 

Yet  Elizabeth  never  overcame  her  repugnance  to  the 
marriage  of  the  clergy,  nor  is  it,  perhaps,  to  be  wondered 
at  when  we  consider  the  contempt  in  which  she  held  the 
Church  of  which  she  was  the  head,^  and  her  general  aversion 
from  sanctioning  in  others  the  matrimony  which  she  was 
herself  always  toying  with  and  never  contracting.  When 
she  made  her  favourites  of  both  sexes  suffer  for  any  legalised 
indiscretions  of  the  kind,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that  she 
always  looked  with  disfavour  on  those  of  the  clergy  who 
availed  themselves  of  the  privilege  which  circumstances 
had  extorted  from  her,  and  which  she  would  fain  have 
withheld.  When  Archbishop  Parker  ventured  to  remon- 
strate with  her  on  her  popish  tendencies,  she  sharply  told 
him  that  "she  repented  of  having  made  any  married 
bishops."  This  was  a  cutting  rejoinder,  but  even  more 
pointed  was  the  insolence  from  which  his  life-long  services 
could  not  protect  his  wife.  The  first  time  the  Queen 
visited  the  archiepiscopal  palace,  on  her  departure  she 
turned  to  thank  Mrs.  Parker:  "And  you — madam  I 
may  not  call  you,  mistress  I  am  ashamed  to  call  you,  so  I 

reigns.  The  result  of  its  visitation  in  1559  shows  how  little  real  conviction 
existed  among  the  clergy  who  had  been  exposed  to  the  capricious  persecutions  of 
alternating  rulers.  Out  of  9400  beneficiaries  in  England  under  Mary,  but  14  bishops, 
6  abbots,  12  deans,  12  archdeacons,  15  heads  of  colleges,  50  prebendaries,  and  80 
rectors  of  parishes  had  abandoned  their  preferment  on  account  of  Protestantism 
(Burnet  Vol.  II.  Append.  217),  and  of  these  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  higher  dig- 
nitaries at  least  had  not  been  allowed  to  retain  their  positions. 

1  Wilkins  IV.  253.— Strype's  Parker,  App.  liii. 

2  In  1576  she  declared  to  Grindal,  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  "  that  it  was 
good  for  the, Church  to  have  few  preachers,  and  that  three  or  four  might  suffice  for  a 
county  ;  and  that  the  reading  of  the  Homilies  to  the  people  was  enough." — Strype's 
Life  of  Grindal,  p.  221. — See  also  Strype's  Parker,  Book  ii.  chap.  xx. 


142  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

know  not  what  to  call  you — but,  howsoever,  I  thank  you."^ 
So,  in  Ipswich,  in  August  1561,  she  found  great  fault  with 
the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  and  especially  with  the  number 
of  wives  and  children  in  cathedrals  and  colleges — a  feeling 
possibly  justified  by  occasional  disorders  not  unlikely  to 
occur.  In  1563  we  find  Sir  John  Bourne  complaining  to 
the  Privy  Council  that  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Worcester 
had  broken  up  the  large  organ,  the  pride  of  the  cathedral, 
which  had  cost  £200  ;  the  metal  pipes  whereof  were  melted 
into  dishes  and  divided  among  the  wives  of  the  prebendaries, 
and  the  case  used  to  make  bedsteads  for  them ;  the  copes 
and  ornaments,  he  added,  would  likewise  have  been  dis- 
tributed had  not  some  of  the  unmarried  men  prevented  it, 
"  and  as  by  their  Habit  and  Apparel  you  might  know  the 
Priests  wives,  and  by  their  Gate  in  the  Market  and  the 
Streets  from  an  hundred  other  Women :  so  in  the  Con- 
gregation and  Cathedral  Church  they  were  easy  to  be 
known  by  placing  themselves  above  all  other  of  the  most 
ancient  and  honest  Calling  of  the  said  City."  ^  There  was 
no  lack  of  persons  to  pour  such  stories  into  the  Queen's  ear, 
and,  with  her  well-known  tendencies,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
her  counsellors  found  it  difficult  to  restrain  her  to  the 
simple  order  which  she  issued  from  Ipswich,  declaring 
"  that  no  manner  of  person,  being  either  the  head  or 
member  of  any  college  or  cathedral  church  within  this 
realm,  shall,  from  the  time  of  the  notification  hereof  in  the 
same  college,  have,  or  be  permitted  to  have,  within  the 
precinct  of  any  such  college,  his  wife,  or  other  woman, 
to  abide  and  dwell  in  the  same,  or  to  frequent  and  haunt 
any  lodging  within  the  same  college,  upon  pain  that  who- 
soever shall  do  to  the  contrary  shall  forfeit  aU  ecclesiastical 
promotions  in  any  cathedral  or  collegiate  church  within 
the  realm."     Burghley,  in  sending  this  royal  mandate  to 

1  Strickland,  Life  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  chap.  iv. 

2  Strype's  Annals,  I.  364-5. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  143 

Parker,  remarks,  "  Her  Majesty  continueth  very  evil 
affected  to  the  state  of  matrimony  in  the  clergy.  And  if 
[I]  were  not  therein  very  stiff,  her  Majesty  would  openly 
and  utterly  condemn  and  forbid  it.  In  the  end,  for  her 
satisfaction,  this  injunction  now  sent  to  your  Grace  is 
devised.  The  good  order  thereof  shall  do  no  harm. 
I  have  devised  to  send  it  in  this  sort  to  your  Grace  for 
your  province ;  and  to  the  Archbishop  of  York  for  his ; 
so  as  it  shall  not  be  promulgated  to  be  popular."  ^  It  is 
doubtless  to  this  occurrence  that  we  may  attribute  the  last 
relic  of  clerical  celibacy  enforced  among  Protestants,  that 
of  the  fellows  of  the  English  universities. 

This  injunction  of  Queen  Elizabeth  caused  no  little 
excitement.  Though  Burghley  had  prudently  endeavoured 
to  prevent  its  becoming  "  popular,"  yet  Cox,  Bishop  of 
Ely,  in  remonstrating  against  its  cruelty  to  those  whom  it 
affected  in  his  cathedral  seat,  shows  that  it  was  speedily 
known  to  all  men,  and  that  it  gave  exceeding  comfort  to 
the  reactionaries  :  "  What  rejoicing  and  jeering  the  adver- 
saries make  !  How  the  godly  ministers  are  discouraged,  I 
will  pass  over."  ^  In  the  universities,  where  crowds  of 
young  men  were  collected,  there  might  be  some  colourable 
excuse  for  the  regulation,  but  in  the  splendid  and  spacious 
buildings  connected  with  the  cathedrals  some  milder 
remedy  might  easily  have  been  found,  and  the  mandate 
was  particularly  unpalatable  to  married  bishops,  Parker 
himself,  who  was  individually  interested  in  the  matter, 
made  a  personal  appeal  to  the  Queen,  the  result  of  which 
was^  to  wound  him  deeply,  as  well  as  to  show  him  how 
extreme  were  her  prejudices  on  the  subject.  He  pours 
forth  his  feelings  in  a  letter  to  Burghley  describing  the 
interview :  "I  was  in  an  horror  to  hear  such  words  to 
come  from  her  mild  nature  and  Christianly  learned  con- 


1  Parkei's  Correspondence,  pp.  146-8. 

2  Ibid.  n.  152. 


2  Ibid.  p.  152. 


144  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

science,  as  she  spake  of  God's  holy  ordinance  and  institution 
of  matrimony.  I  marvel  that  our  states  in  that  behalf 
cannot  please  her  Highness,  which  we  doubt  nothing  at  all 
to  please  God's  sacred  Majesty."  He  deplores  the  effect 
which  it  must  produce  on  the  people  :  "  We  alone  of  our 
time  openly  brought  in  hatred,  shamed  and  traduced  before 
the  malicious  and  ignorant  people,  as  beasts  without  know- 
ledge to  Godward,  in  using  this  liberty  of  his  word,  as  men 
of  efFrenate  intemperency,  without  discretion  or  any  godly 
disposition  worthy  to  serve  in  our  state.  Insomuch  that 
the  Queen's  Highness  expressed  to  me  a  repentance  that 
we  were  thus  appointed  in  office,  wishing  it  had  been 
otherwise."  The  interview  had  evidently  been  stormy, 
and  Parker  had  been  made  to  feel  the  full  force  of  Eliza- 
beth's perverseness — "  I  have  neither  joy  of  house,  land,  or 
name,  so  abased  by  my  natural  sovereign  good  lady,  for 
whose  service  and  honour  I  would  not  think  it  cost  to 
spend  my  life  " — and  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  threaten 
resistance  :  "  I  would  be  sorry  that  the  clergy  should  have 
cause  to  show  disobedience,  with  oportet  Deo  obedire  magis 
quam  hominibus.  And  what  instillers  soever  there  be, 
there  be  enough  of  this  contemned  flock  which  will  not 
shrink  to  offer  their  blood  to  the  defence  of  Christ's  verity, 
if  it  be  either  openly  impugned  or  secretly  suggilled."^ 
Evidently,  before  Parker  could  have  been  driven  to  such 
scarcely  covered  threats,  there  must  have  been  an  intima- 
tion by  the  angry  Queen  that  she  would  recall  the  permis- 
sion to  marry,  which,  in  the  existing  state  of  the  law,  she 
could  readily  have  done. 

The  same  spirit  which  rendered  the  marriage  of  a  pastor 
dependent  on  the  approbation  of  the  neighbouring  squires 
caused  the  retention  of  ancient  rules,  which  prove  the 
profound  distrust  still  entertained  as  to  the  discretion 
and  morality  of  the  clergy,  and  the  difficulty  with  which 

1  Parker's  Correspondence,  pp.  156-8. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  145 

the  Anglican  Church  threw  off  the  traditions  of  Cathohcism. 
Thus,  even  in  1571,  Grindal,  Archbishop  of  York,  pro- 
mulgates a  modification  of  the  canon  of  Nicsea,  forbid- 
ding the  residence  with  unmarried  ministers  of  women 
under  the  age  of  sixty,  except  relatives  closely  connected 
by  blood.  ^  Indeed,  in  some  remote  corners  of  the  kingdom 
the  old  licence  was  kept  up.  Archbishop  Parker,  about 
the  year  1565,  in  speaking  of  the  diocese  of  Bangor,  states  : 
"  I  hear  that  diocese  to  be  much  out  of  order,  both  having 
no  preaching  there  and  pensionary  concubinary  openly 
continued,  notwithstanding  liberty  of  marriage  granted."^ 
It  evidently  required  time  to  accustom  the  clergy  to  the 
substitution  of  the  new  privileges  for  the  old. 

Although  sacerdotal  marriage  was  now  fully  sanctioned 
by  the  organic  canon  law  of  the  Church,  yet  it  was  still 
exposed  to  serious  impediments  of  a  worldly  character. 
When  thus  frowned  upon  by  her  who  was  in  reality,  if  not 
in  name,  supreme  head  of  the  Church  ;  when  the  wife  of 
the  primate  himself  could  be  exposed  to  such  indelible 
impertinence ;  when  the  marriage  of  every  unfortunate 
parson  was  subjected  to  degrading  conditions,  and  when  it 
was  assumed  that  his  bride  must  be  a  woman  at  service, 
the  influences  affecting  the  matrimonial  alliances  of  the 
clergy  must  have  been  of  the  worst  description.  The 
higherclassesof  society  would  naturally  model  their  opinions 
on  those  of  the  sovereign,  while  the  lower  orders  had  not 
as  yet  shaken  off  the  prejudices  in  favour  of  celibacy 
implanted  in  them  by  the  custom  of  centuries.  Making 
due  allowance  for  polemical  bitterness,  there  is  therefore 
no  doubt  much  truth  in  the  sarcastic  account  which 
Sanders  gives  of  the  wives  of  the  Elizabethan  clergy. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  refusal  of  Parliament  to  formally 
legalise  such  marriages — a  refusal  which   could  not   but 

1  Wilkins  IV.  269. 

2  Farter's  Correspondence,  p.  259. 

VOL.  II.  K 


146  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

greatly  affect  the  minds  of  the  people — he  assumes  that  the 
wives  were  concubines  and  the  children  illegitimate  in  the 
eyes  of  the  law  ;  consequently  decent  women  refused  to 
undergo  the  obloquy  attached  to  a  union  with  a  minister 
of  the  Church,  who  was  therefore  forced  to  take  as  his 
spouse  any  one  who  would  consent  to  accept  him.  The 
wives  of  prelates  were  ostracised ;  not  received  at  court, 
and  sharing  in  no  way  the  dignities  of  their  husbands,  they 
were  kept  closely  at  home  for  the  mere  gratification  of 
animal  passion.  The  members  of  universities  had  been 
wholly  unsuccessful  in  their  efforts  to  obtain  the  same 
licence,  which  was  only  granted  to  the  heads  of  colleges, 
under  condition  that  their  wives  should  reside  elsewhere, 
and  should  rarely  pollute  with  their  presence  the  learned 
precincts.^ 

1  Qui  autem  istis  darent  filias  suas,  ne  protestantes  quidem  fere  inveniebantur, 
nedum  Catholici :  primum  quia  existimant  id  esse  per  se  infanae,  ut  sint  vel  dicantur 
uxores  presbyterorum.  Secundo,  quia  juxta  leges  regni  non  sunt  adhuc  vera  sed 
adulterina  conjugia,  ac  proinde  proles  illegitima.  Tertio  quia  non  accrescit  his 
uxoribus  aut  liberis  suis  ex  maritorum  loco  aut  honore  in  Kepublica  ulla  dignitas  aut 
existimatio,  quod  est  contra  naturamveri  matrimonii.  Non  enim  Archiepiscopus,  Epis- 
copus,  aliusve  hodie  praelatus  in  Anglia  si  sit  conjugatus,  tribuit  quicquam  ex  eo  honoris 
vel  prseeminentia  uxori  suae,  non  magis  quam  si  esset  ejus  tantum  concubina.  Hinc 
sit  ut  nee  eas  Elizabetha  in  aulam,  nee  principum  uxores  in  consortium  uUo  modo 
admittant,  ne  Archiepiscoporum  quidem  vocatas  conjuges  ;  sed  debent  eas  mariti 
domi  continere,  pro  vasis  tantem  libidinis  aut  necessitatis  suae.  Quae  istis  ergo  con- 
ditionibus,  ve  summis  prselatis  conjungerentur,  cum  honestiores  paucae  aut  nullae 
reperiebantur,  quas  poterant  habere  accipere  fuit  necesse.  Sed  et  aliis  modis 
utcumque  istorum  hominum  cupiditati  per  magistratum  civilem  impositum  est 
fr?eDum.  Nam  et  Collegiorum  alumni  qui  in  Anglicanis  universitatibus  admodum 
multi  erant,  otioque  ac  saturitate  panis  abundabant,  ac  admodum  provecti  aitate 
erant,  cupiebant  et  ipsi  habere  uxores ;  sed  videbatur  inconveniens,  et  id  privilegii 
Collegiorum  tantum  Eectoribus  concessum  est,  cum  hac  tamen  exceptione,  ut  con- 
juges seorsim  plerunque  extra  Collegia  coustituant,  rariusque  eas  intromittant. — De 
Schismate  Anglicano  Lib.  III.  (Ingoldstat.  1586,  p.  300.) 

See  also  Florimund.  Eaemund.  Histor.  Memoral.  Lib.  VI.  cap.  xii. 

Of  course,  much  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  statements  of  so  keen  a  partisan 
as  Sanders,  and  one  who  had  suffered  so  much  from  those  whom  he  satirised  ;  yet  he 
was  a  man  of  too  much  shrewdness  to  make  statements  which  his  contemporaries 
could  recognise  as  entirely  destitute  of  foundation. 

Even  to  this  day  the  position  of  the  wives  of  the  Anglican  prelates  is  made  a 
subject  of  ridicule  by  Catholic  polemics.  A  recent  Italian  tract  entitled  "II  Celibato 
del  sacerdozio  Cattolico  "  remarks  :  "  Osservate  piuttosto  le  mogli  de'  vescovi  e  degli 
arcivescovi  Anglicani,  tenute  esse  in  conto  di  concubine  non  hanno  posto  alcuno 
nella  civile  society." — Panzini,  Confessione  di  un  Prigioniero,  p.  472. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  147 

The  accuracy  of  this  sarcastic  description  is  confirmed 
by  a  statement  made  by  Percival  Wiburn  for  the  benefit 
of  his  friends  in  Zurich,  subsequent  to  the  adoption  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles.  He  asserts  that  "  The  marriage  of 
priests  was  counted  unlawful  in  the  times  of  Queen  Mary, 
and  was  also  forbidden  by  a  public  statute  of  the  realm, 
which  is  also  in  force  at  this  day ;  although  by  permission 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  clergymen  may  have  their  wives,  pro- 
vided only  they  marry  by  the  advice  and  assent  of  the 
bishop  and  two  justices  of  the  peace,  as  they  call  them. 
The  lords  bishops  are  forbidden  to  have  their  wives  with 
them  in  their  palaces ;  as  are  also  the  deans,  canons, 
presbyters,  and  other  ministers  of  the  Church,  within 
colleges,  or  the  precincts  of  cathedral  churches."^  It  is 
not  a  little  curious,  indeed,  to  observe  that,  in  spite  of  the 
formal  declaration  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  the  absence 
of  a  special  Act  of  Parliament  long  caused  the  question  to 
remain  a  doubtful  one  in  the  public  mind.  As  late  as 
July  1566,  Lawrence  Humphrey  and  Thomas  Sampson, 
two  zealous  Protestants,  in  denouncing  "  some  straws  and 
chips  of  the  popish  rehgion"  which  still  defaced  the 
Anglican  Church,  state  that  "  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  is 
now  allowed  and  sanctioned  by  the  public  laws  of  the 
kingdom,  but  their  children  are  by  some  persons  regarded 
as  illegitimate  "  ;  in  answer  to  which.  Bishops  Grindal  and 
Horn  rejoined  that  "the  wives  of  the  clergy  are  not 
separated  from  their  husbands,  and  their  marriage  is 
esteemed  honourable  by  all,  the  papists  always  excepted."^ 
The  matter  evidently  was  still  regarded  as  a  subject  of 
controversy,  not  yet  decided  beyond  appeal ;  and  the 
experience  of  the  previous  quarter  of  a  century  had 
accustomed  men  to  too  many  vicissitudes  for  them  to  feel 

Zurich  Letters,  Second  Series,  p.  359  (Parker  Society,  1845).  Wiburn  was  de- 
prived for  non-conformity  in  1564,  so  that  this  must  have  been  written  subsequently 
(Strype's  Life  of  Grindal,  p.  98). 

2  Zurich  Letters,  First  Series,  pp.  164,  179. 


148  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

safe  with  so  slender  a  guarantee  as  the  Articles  afforded. 
The  Catholics  still  constituted  a  very  large  proportion  of 
the  population,  and  they  scarcely  concealed  their  feehngs 
towards  the  innovation.  When  Sir  John  Bourne  quarrelled 
with  Dr.  Sandys,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  among  the  formal 
articles  of  accusation  which  he  presented  to  the  Privy 
Council  was  the  assertion  that  the  Bishop  in  a  sermon  had 
ridiculed  celibacy  and  had  decried  the  virtue  of  unmarried 
priests.^  The  knight  apparently  believed  that  this  would 
be  damaging  to  the  bishop,  and  the  latter  seems  likewise 
to  have  thought  so,  for  in  his  answer  he  emphatically 
denied  it,  retorting  that  his  adversary  was  a  papist  who  had 
Mass  celebrated  in  his  house  and  who  was  in  the  habit  of 
applying  the  most  opprobrious  epithets  to  the  wives  of 
priests.^  So  when  in  1569  the  Catholics  of  the  North  rose 
in  insurrection  under  the  Earls  of  Westmoreland  and 
Northumberland,  one  of  the  grievances  of  which  they  com- 
plained was  the  marriage  of  the  ministers  of  Christ.^  During 
the  whole  of  this  transition  period  the  question  was  evidently 
one  which  occupied  largely  the  public  mind,  and  in  the 
diversity  of  opinion  it  was  not  easy  to  see  what  the  ultimate 

1  "  That,  concerning  Virginity  and  the  Single  Life,  Le  handled  the  case  so  finely 
that  to  his  thinking,  if  he  should  have  believed  him,  he  could  not  find  three  good 
Virgins  since  Christ's  time.  And  that  so  he  left  the  Matter  with  an  Exhortation  to 
all  to  Mary,  Mary.  Further,  That  he  said  in  that  Sermon  that  single-living  Men, 
that  is  to  say  unmaried,  and  especially  unmaried  priests,  lived  naught.  And  that 
there  in  that  City  were  lately  presented  five  or  six  unmaried  priests  that  kept  five  or 
six  whores  apiece  ;  though  there  were  not  above  four  unmaried  priests  in  the  City  in 
all."— Strype's  Annals,  I.  349. 

2  "Where  he  alledgeth  that  he  never  called  Priests  Wives  PTAores,  it  is  untrue. 
For  three  Women  going  through  his  Park,  wherein  is  a  path  for  footmen,  he  sup- 
posing they  had  been  Priests  Wives  called  unto  them,  Ye  shall  not  come  through  my 
Parh  and  no  such  Priests  Whores.^^ — Ibid.  p.  358. 

3  See  a  tract  published  against  the  rebels,  attributed  by  Strype  to  Sir  Thomas 
Smith,  which  ridicules  the  advocates  of  celibacy  with  a  vigour  reminding  us  of  the 
Beggars'  Petition. — "This  is  a  quarrel  wholly  like  the  old  Rebels  Complaint  of  En- 
closing of  Commons.  Many  of  your  Disordered  and  evil  disposed  Wives  are  much 
agrieved  that  Priests,  which  were  wont  to  be  Common  be  now  made  Several.  Hinc 
iUce  lachrymce.  There  is  Grief  indeed,  and  Truth  it  is,  and  so  shall  you  find  it. 
Few  Women  storm  against  the  marriage  of  priests,  calling  it  unlawful  and  incensing 
Men  against  it,  but  such  as  have  been  Priests  Harlots  or  fain  would  be.  Content 
your  Wives  yourselves  and  let  Priests  have  their  own." — Strype's  Annals,  I.  558. 


THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  149 

decision  might  be.  When  an  irrevocable  step  such  as 
marriage  was  legal  only  during  the  pleasure  of  a  capricious 
woman,  whose  assent  was  known  to  have  been  extorted 
from  her,  it  is  no  wonder  that  it  should  be  looked  upon 
with  disfavour  by  all  prudent  relatives  of  women  inclined 
to  venture  on  it. 

Such  a  state  of  feeling  could  not  but  react  most  injuri- 
ously on  the  character  of  the  great  body  of  the  clergy. 
It  deprived  them  of  the  respect  due  to  their  sacred  calling, 
and  consequently  reduced  them  to  the  level  of  such  scant 
respect  as  was  accorded  to  them.  How  long  this  lasted, 
and  how  materially  it  degraded  the  ministers  of  Christ  as 
a  body,  cannot  be  questioned  by  any  one  who  recalls  the 
description  of  the  rural  clergy  in  the  brilliant  third  chapter 
of  Macaulay's  History  of  England.  In  1686  an  author 
complains  that  the  rector  is  an  object  of  contempt  and 
ridicule  for  all  above  the  rank  of  the  neighbouring  peasants  ; 
that  gentle  blood  would  be  held  polluted  by  any  connec- 
tion with  the  Church,  and  that  girls  of  good  family  were 
taught  with  equal  earnestness  not  to  marry  clergymen,  nor 
to  sacrifice  their  reputation  by  amorous  indiscretions — 
two  misfortunes  which  were  commonly  regarded  as  equal.  ^ 

Thus  eagerly  accepted  and  grudgingly  bestowed,  the 
privilege  of  marriage  estabhshed  itself  in  the  Church  of 
England  by  connivance  rather  than  as  a  right ;  and  the 
evil  influences  of  the  prejudices  thus  fostered  were  not 
extinguished  for  generations. 

1  A  causidico,  medicastra,  ipsaque  artificum  farragine,  ecclesias  rector  aut 
vicarius  contemnitur  et  fit  ludibrio.  Gentis  et  familiae  nitor  sacris  ordinibus  pol- 
lutus  censetur :  foeminisque  natalitio  insignibus  unicum  inculcatur  ssepius  prsecep- 
tum,  ne  modestise  naufragium  faciant,  aut  (quod  idem  auribus  tarn  delicatulis 
sonat)  ne  clerico  se  nuptas  dari  patiantur. — T.  Wood,  Anglias  Notitia  (Macaulay's 
Hist.  Engl.  Chap.  iii.). 

Lord  Macaulay  attributes  the  degraded  position  of  the  clergy  to  their  indigence 
and  want  of  influence.  These  causes  doubtless  had  their  effect,  but  the  peculiar 
repugnance  towards  clerical  marriage  ascribed  to  all  respectable  women  had  a  deeper 
origin  than  simply  the  beggarly  stipends  attached  to  the  majority  of  English  livings. 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

CALVINISM 

In  the  easy  toleration  which  preceded  the  Reformation, 
Luther's  precursor,  Jacques  Lefevre  d'Etaples,  in  1512 
pubHshed  his  Commentaries  on  the  PauHne  Epistles. 
The  work  was  a  significant  portent  of  the  era  about  to 
open.  For  the  first  time  the  traditional  scholastic  exe- 
gesis was  cast  aside  for  a  treatment  in  which  tradition  was 
rejected  and  independent  judgment  was  exercised  as  a 
matter  of  right.  As  in  so  much  else,  the  full  import  of 
this  was  not  recognised  until  the  Lutheran  revolt  showed 
the  necessity  of  strict  adherence  to  the  ancient  ways  and  of 
shackling  human  thought  with  additional  rigour.  It  was 
not  until  after  Luther's  condemnation  by  the  Sorbonne, 
in  1521,  that  the  Commentaries  were  censured  and  twenty- 
five  heretical  errors  were  discovered  in  them ;  even  then 
the  favour  of  Francis  I.  protected  their  author  from  the 
prosecution  commenced  against  him  in  1523.  Many  a 
hardy  thinker  had  been  burnt  for  less.  Lefevre  denied 
justification  by  either  faith  or  works,  for  God  alone 
justifies ;  religious  Orders  only  awaken  pride  and  imperil 
Christian  love — it  would  be  better  that  there  were  none, 
but,  while  they  exist,  monks  should  work  with  their  hands, 
as  did  the  apostles ;  confession  and  forgiveness  of  sins 
were  originally  mutual  between  brethren — the  modern 
custom  is  due  to  the  absence  of  faith,  but  Christ  may 
accept  it ;  celibacy  in  itself  is  better  than  marriage,  but 
priests  and  deacons  were  permitted  to  marry  until  the 
time  of  Gregory   VII. ;   the  Greek  Church  has  retained 


CALVINISM  151 

the  apostolic  custom  of  marriage,  while  the  other  Churches 
adopted  celibacy,  whereby  many,  through  incontinence, 
fall  into  the  snares  of  the  devil.  ^ 

The  seed  thus  scattered  fell  into  fruitful  soil,  and 
as  early  as  1525,  Clement  VII.,  in  a  brief  addressed  to 
the  Regent  Louise  of  Savoy,  enumerates  among  the 
"  Lutheran  "  errors  spreading  through  France  the  stigma- 
tising of  the  canons  enjoining  clerical  celibacy  as  Satanic.^ 
By  the  time  when  Jean  Calvin  formulated  the  system  of 
theology  which  bears  his  name,  sacerdotal  marriage  had 
thus  everywhere  become  recognised  as  one  of  the  inevit- 
able incidents  of  the  revolt  against  Rome,  and  that  the 
French  Huguenots  should  accept  it  was  therefore  a  matter 
of  course. 

Calvin  himself  manifested  his  contempt  for  all  the 
ancient  prejudices  by  marrying,  in  1539,  Idelette  de  Bure, 
the  widow  of  the  Anabaptist  Jean  Stordeur,  whom  he 
had  converted.^  The  Huguenot  Confession  of  Faith  was 
drawn  up  by  him,  and  was  adopted  by  the  first  national 
synod,  held  at  Paris  in  1559.  Of  course  the  Genevan 
views  of  justification  swept  away  all  the  accumulated 
observances  of  sacerdotalism,  and  ascetic  celibacy  shared 
the  fate  of  the  rest.*      The  discipline   of  the    Calvinist 


1  Karl  Heinrich  Graf,  Jacobus  Faber  Stapulensis,  pp.  37,  45,  46,  48,  165-7 
(Strassburg,  1842). 

2  Clement  PP.  VII.  Breve  Cum,  ad  nihil  (Isambert.  Anciennes  Loix  Fran^aises, 
XII.  233). 

3  Rahlenbeck,  L'Eglise  de  Liege,  p.  49.  The  stern  and  self-centred  soul  which 
won  for  Idelette  the  hand  of  Calvin  was  unshaken  to  the  last,  as  may  be  seen  by 
his  curious  account  of  her  death-bed,  in  a  letter  to  Farel  (Calvini  Epistolae,  p.  111. 
GenevEe,  1617).  His  grief  was  doubtless  sincere,  but  his  friends  were  able  to  com- 
pliment him  on  his  not  allowing  domestic  affliction  to  interfere  with  his  customary 
routine  of  labour  (Ibid.  p.  116). 

4  I  have  not  access  to  the  original,  but  quote  the  following  from  Quick's 
"Synodicon  in  Gallia  Reformata,"  London,  1692— "  Art.  xxiv.  ...  We  do  also 
reject  those  means  which  men  presumed  they  had,  whereby  they  might  be  redeemed 
before  God  ;  for  they  derogate  from  the  satisfaction  of  the  Death  and  Passion  of 
Jesus  Christ.'  Finally,  We  hold  Purgatory  to  be  none  other  than  a  cheat,  which  came 
out  of  the  same  shop:  from  which  also  proceeded  monastical  vows,  pilgrimages, 
prohibition  of  marriage  and  the  use  of  meats  a  ceremonious  observation  of  days 


152  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Church  with  regard  to  the  morahty  of  its  ministers  was 
necessarily  severe.  The  pecuHar  purity  expected  of  a 
pastor' s  household  was  shown  by  the  rule  which  enjoined 
any  Church  officer  whose  wife  was  convicted  of  adultery  to 
dismiss  her  absolutely,  under  pain  of  deposition,  while 
laymen,  under  such  circumstances,  were  exhorted  to  be 
reconciled  to  their  guilty  partners.^  Any  lapse  from 
virtue  on  the  part  of  a  minister  was  visited  with  peremp- 
tory deposition ;  ^  nor  was  this  a  mere  idle  threat,  such  as 
were  too  many  of  the  innumerable  decrees  of  the  Catholic 
councils  quoted  above,  for  the  proceedings  of  various 
synods  show  that  it  was  carried  sternly  into  execution. 
A  list  of  such  vagrant  and  deposed  ministers  was  even 
kept  and  published  to  the  churches,  with  personal  descrip- 
tions of  the  individuals,  that  they  might  not  be  able  to 
impose  on  the  unwary.  Indeed,  the  national  synod  of 
Lyons,  in  1563,  went  so  far  as  to  punish  those  ministers 
who  brought  contempt  upon  the  Church  by  unfitting 
marriages  ;  ^  and,  though  this  was  omitted  from  the  final 
code  of  discipline,  it  shows  the  exceeding  strictness  with 
which  the  internal  economy  of  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment of  the  Huguenots  was  regulated. 

The  relations  of  the  Catholic  Church  with  its  apostates 
were  somewhat  confused,  and  they  varied  with  the  political 
exigencies  of  the  situation.  Ecclesiastics  who  left  the 
Catholic  communion  did  not  hesitate  to  enter  into  matri- 
mony ;  *  and  when  the  desolation  of  civil  war  rendered 

auricular  confession,  indulgences,  and  all  other  such  matters,  by  which  Grace  and 
Salvation  may  be  supposed  to  be  deserved.  Which  things  we  reject,  not  only  for 
the  false  opinion  of  merit  which  was  affixed  to  them,  but  also  because  they 
are  the  inventions  of  men,  and  are  a  yoke  laid  by  their  sole  authority  upon  con- 
science "  (Quick,  I.  xi.). — See  also  the  Confession  written  by  Calvin  in  1662,  to 
be  laid  betore  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  (Calvini  Epist.  pp.  564-66). 

1  Discip.  Chap.  xiii.  can.  xxviii.  (Quick,  I.  iii.) 

2  Ibid.  Chap.  i.  can.  xlvii. 

3  Chap.  IV.  Art.  xii.,  Chap.  xvi.  Art.  xiv.  (Quick,  I.  32,  38.) 

4  Prelates  of  high  position  were  not  wanting  to  the  list  of  married  men. 
Carracioli,  Bishop  of  Troyes,  and  Spifame,  Bishop  of  Nevers,  were  of  the  number. 
Jean  de  Monluc,  Bishop  of  Valence  (brother  of  the  celebrated  Marshal  Blaise  de 


CALVINISM  153 

a  forced  tolerance  of  the  new  religion  necessary,  their 
position  was  a  source  of  considerable  debate,  varying  with 
the  fluctuations  of  the  tangled  politics  of  the  time.  The 
Edict  of  Pacification  of  Amboise,  in  March  1562,  was 
held  by  the  Huguenots  to  legalise  the  marriages  of  these 
apostates,  but  the  explanatory  declaration  of  August  1563 
ordered  their  reclamation  by  the  Church  under  pain  of 
exile.  When  the  Spanish  alliance  gave  fresh  assurances 
of  triumph  to  the  Catholics  this  was  enforced  with  increased 
severity.  The  Edict  of  Roussillon,  in  1564,  commands 
that  all  priests,  monks,  and  nuns  who  had  abandoned  their 
profession  and  entered  into  matrimony  shall  sunder  their 
unhallowed  bonds  and  return  to  their  duties.  Recalci- 
trants were  required  to  leave  the  kingdom  within  two 
months,  under  pain,  in  the  case  of  men,  of  condemnation 
to  the  galleys  for  life,  and  in  that  of  women,  of  perpetual 
imprisonment.^  As  most  of  the  Calvinist  ministers  neces- 
sarily belonged  to  the  class  thus  assailed,  the  effect  of  this 
legislation  in  stimulating  the  troubles  of  the  kingdom  can 
readily  be  perceived. 

The  dismal  strife  of  the  succeeding  ten  years  at  length 
showed  that,  in  spite  of  the  Tridentine  canons,  the  tolera- 
tion of  this  iniquity  was  a  necessity.  Thus  in  the  Edicts 
of  Pacification  issued  by  Henry  III.  in  1576  and  1577 
there  is  a  provision  which  admits  as  valid  the  marriages 
theretofore  contracted  by  all  priests  or  religious  persons  of 
either  sex.  The  issue  of  such  unions  was  declared  com- 
petent to  inherit  the  personalty  of  the  parents  and  such 

Monluc,  whose  cruelties  to  the  Huguenots  were  so  notorious),  married  without 
openly  apostatising,  and  died  in  the  Catholic  faith.  Cardinal  Odet  de  Chatillon, 
Bishop  of  Beauvais,  and  brother  of  the  Admiral,  became  a  declared  Calvinist, 
marriedj  Mile,  de  Hauteville,  and  called  himself  Comte  de  Beauvais.  He  seems  to 
have  retained  his  benefices,  and  was  still  called  by  the  Catholics  M.  le  Cardinal 
"  Car  il  nous  estoit  fort  k  coeur,"  says  Brantome  (Discours  48),  "  de  luy  changer  le 
nom  qui  luy  avoit  este  si  bien  scant." 

1  Edit  de  Eoussillon,  Art.  7  (Isambert  XV.  172).  This  edict  was  cited  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  case  of  Dumonteil,  about  the  year  1830,  of  which  more 
hereafter. 


154  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

realty   as   either   parent   might ;  have   acquired,   but   was 
incapable  of  other  inheritance,  direct  or  collateral.^ 

The  Church  was  obliged  to  submit  to  this  temporising 
tolerance  of  evil,  and  condescended  to  entreaty  since  force 
was  no  longer  permitted.  In  1581  the  Council  of  Rouen, 
while  deploring  the  number  of  monks  and  nuns  who  had  left 
their  convents,  apostatised,  and  married,  directs  that  they 
shall  be  tempted  back,  treated  with  kindness,  and  pardon  be 
sought  for  them  from  the  Holy  See.^  In  the  final  settle- 
ment of  the  religious  troubles,  the  concessions  made  by 
Henry  III.  were  renewed  and  somewhat  amplified  by  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  in  1598.^  When  the  reaction  came, 
however,  these  provisions  were  held  to  be  only  retro- 
spective in  their  action,  and  were  not  admitted  as  legalising 
subsequent  marriages.  Thus  in  1628  a  knight  of  Malta, 
in  1630  a  nun,  and  in  1640  a  priest  of  Nevers,  who  had 
embraced  Calvinism,  ventured  on  matrimony,  but  were 
separated  from  their  spouses  and  the  marriages  were 
pronounced  null.*  These  decisions  were  based  on  the 
principle  that  the  celibacy  of  ecclesiastics  was  prescribed 
by  municipal  as  well  as  by  canon  law,  and  that  a  priest  in 
abjuring  his  religion  did  not  escape  from  the  obligations 
imposed  upon  him  by  the  laws  of  the  kingdom.^ 

In  Scotland,  as  in  France,  the  question  of  sacerdotal 
marriage  may  be  considered  as  having  virtually  been 
settled  in  advance.  LoUardry  had  not  been  confined  to 
the  southern  portion  of  Great  Britain.     It  had  penetrated 

1  Edit  de  1576,  Art.  9.-  Edit  de  Poitiers,  Art.  Secrets,  No.  8  (Isambert,  T.  XV. 
pp.  283,  331). 

2  Concil   Rotomag.  ann.  1581  cap.  de  Monasteriis  §  32  (Harduin.  X.  1253). 

3  Edit  de  Nantes,  Art.  Secrets,  No.  39  (Isambert,  T.  XVI.  p.  206). 

4  Gregoire,  Hist,  du  Mariage  des  Pretres  en  France,  pp.  58-9. 

5  A  decision  rendered  on  the  argument  of  the  distinguished  avocat-general  Omer 
Talon  expressly  states  "que  la  prohibition  du  mariage  des  personnes  constitutes 
dans  les  ordres  etant  une  loi  de  I'Etat  aussi  bien  que  de  I'Eglise,  un  pretre  malgre 
sa  profession  de  Calvinisme,  ^tait  demeure  sujet  aux  lois  de  I'Etat,  et  d^s  lors  n'avait 
pas  pu  valablement  contracter  mariage." — Bouhier  de  I'Ecluse,  de  I'Etat  des  Pretres 
en  France,  Paris,  1842,  p.  12. 


CALVINISM  155 

into  Scotland,  and  had  received  the  countenance  of  those 
whose  position  and  influence  were  well  calculated  to  aid  in 
its  dissemination  among  the  people.  In  1494,  thirty  of 
these  heretics,  known  as  "the  Lollards  of  Kyle,"  were 
prosecuted  before  James  IV.  by  Robert  Blacater,  Arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow.  Their  station  may  be  estimated  from 
the  fact  that  they  escaped  the  punishment  due  to  their 
sins  by  the  favour  of  the  monarch,  "  for  divers  of  them 
were  his  great  familiars."  The  thirty-four  articles  of 
accusation  brought  against  them  are  mostly  Wickliffite  in 
tendency,  and  their  views  on  the  question  of  celibacy  are 
manifested  in  the  twenty-second  article,  which  accuses 
them  of  asserting  "  That  Priests  may  have  wives  according 
to  the  constitution  of  the  Law  and  of  the  Primitive 
Christian  Church."^ 

The  soil  was  thus  ready  for  the  plough  of  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  while  the  temper  of  the  Scottish  race  gave  warrant 
that  when  the  mighty  movement  should  reach  them,  it 
would  be  marked  by  that  stern  and  uncompromising  spirit 
which  alone  could  satisfy  conscientious  and  fiery  bigots, 
who  would  regard  all  half-measures  as  pacts  with  Satan. 
Nor  was  there  lacking  ample  cause  to  excite  in  the  minds 
of  all  men  the  desire  for  a  sweeping  and  effectual  reform. 
Corruption  had  extended  through  every  fibre  of  the  Scot- 
tish Church  as  all-pervading  as  that  which  we  have  traced 
throughout  the  rest  of  Christendom. 

Not  long  after  the  year  1530,  and  before  the  new  heresy 
had  obtained  a  foothold,  William  Arith,  a  Dominican, 
ventured  to  assail  the  vices  of  his  fellow  churchmen.  In 
a  sermon  preached  at  St.  Andrews,  with  the  approbation 
of  the  heads  of  the  universities,  he  alluded  to  the  false 
miracles  with  which  the  people  were  deceived,  and  the 
abuses  practised  at  shrines  to  which  credulous  devotion 
was  invited.     "  As  of  late  dayes,"  he  proceeded,  "  our  Lady 

1  Knox,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  p.  3  (ed.  1609). 


156  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

of  Karsgreng  hath  hopped  from  one  green  hillock  to 
another :  But,  honest  men  of  St.  Andre wes,  if  ye  love  your 
wives  and  daughters,  hold  them  at  home,  or  else  send  them 
in  good  honest  company ;  for  if  ye  knew  what  miracles 
were  wrought  there,  ye  would  thank  neither  God  nor  our 
Lady."  In  another  sermon,  arguing  that  the  disorders  of 
the  clergy  should  be  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
civil  authorities,  he  introduced  an  anecdote  respecting 
Prior  Patrick  Hepburn,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Murray. 
That  prelate  once,  in  merry  discourse  with  his  gentlemen, 
asked  of  them  the  number  of  their  mistresses,  and  what 
proportion  of  the  fair  dames  were  married.  The  first  who 
answered  confessed  to  five,  of  whom  two  were  bound  in 
wedlock ;  the  next  boasted  of  seven,  with  three  married 
women  among  them ;  and  so  on  until  the  turn  came  to 
Hepburn  himself,  who,  proud  of  his  bonnes  fortunes, 
declared  that  although  he  was  the  youngest  man  there,  his 
mistresses  numbered  twelve,  of  whom  seven  were  men's 
wives.  ^  Yet  Arith  was  a  good  Catholic,  who,  on  being 
driven  from  Scotland  for  his  plain  speaking,  suffered  im- 
prisonment in  England  under  Henry  VIII.  for  maintaining 
the  supremacy  of  the  Pope. 

How  little  concealment  was  thought  requisite  vdth 
regard  to  these  scandals  is  exemplified  in  the  case  of 
Alexander  Ferrers,  which  occurred  about  the  same  time. 
Taken  prisoner  by  the  English  and  immured  for  seven 
years  in  the  Tower  of  London,  he  returned  home  to  find 
that  his  wife  had  been  consoled  and  his  substance  dissipated 
in  his  absence  by  a  neighbouring  priest,  for  the  which  cause 
he  not  unnaturally  **  spake  more  liberally  of  priests  than 
they  could  bear."  By  this  time  heresy  was  spreading,  and 
severe  measures  of  repression  were  considered  necessary. 
It  therefore  was  not  difficult  to  have  the  man's  disrespect- 

1  Knox,  pp.   15-16.— Calderwood's  Historie  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  I.    88-5 
(Wodrow  Soc). 


CALVINISM  157 

ful  remarks  construed  as  savouring  of  Lutheranism,  and 
he  was  accordingly  brought  up  for  trial  at  St.  Andrews. 
The  first  article  of  accusation  read  to  him  was  that  he 
despised  the  Mass,  whereto  he  answered,  "  I  heare  more 
Masses  in  eight  dayes  than  three  bishops  there  sitting  say 
in  a  yeare."  The  next  article  accused  him  of  contemning 
the  sacraments.  "  The  priests,"  replied  he,  "  were  the 
most  contemnors  of  the  sacraments,  especially  of  matri- 
mony." "  And  that  he  witnessed  by  many  of  the  priests 
there  present,  and  named  the  man's  wife  with  whom  they 
had  meddled,  and  especially  Sir  John  Dungwaill,  who  had 
seven  years  together  abused  his  own  wife  and  consumed 
his  substance,  and  said  :  because  I  complain  of  such  injuries, 
I  am  here  summoned  and  accused  as  one  that  is  worthy  to 
be  burnt :  For  God's  sake,  said  he,  will  ye  take  wives  of 
your  own,  that  I  and  others  whom  ye  have  abused  may  be 
revenged  on  you."  Old  Gawain  Dunbar,  Bishop  of  Aber- 
deen, not  relishing  this  public  accusation,  sought  to  justify 
himself,  exclaiming,  "  Carle,  thou  shalt  not  know  my  wife  "  ; 
but  the  prisoner  turned  the  tables  on  him,  "  My  lord,  ye 
are  too  old,  but  by  the  grace  of  God  1  shall  drink  with 
your  daughter  or  I  depart."  "And  thereat  there  was 
smiling  of  the  best  and  loud  laughter  of  some,  for  the 
bishop  had  a  daughter  married  with  Andrew  Balfour  in 
that  town."  The  prelates  who  sat  in  judgment  found  that 
they  were  exchanging  places  with  the  accused,  and,  fearful 
of  further  revelations  from  the  reckless  Alexander,  com- 
manded him  to  depart ;  but  he  refused,  unless  each  one 
should  contribute  something  to  replace  the  goods  which 
his  wife's  paramour  had  consumed,  and  finally,  to  stop  his 
evil  tongue,  they  paid  him  and  bade  him  be  gone.^ 

All  prelates,  however,  were  not  so  sensitive.  When 
Cardinal  Beatoun,  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  primate  of 
Scotland,  and  virtual  governor  of  the  realm,  about  the 

1  Knox,  pp.  16-17. 


158  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

year  1546  married  his  eldest  daughter  to  the  eldest  son  of 
the  Earl  of  Crawford,  he  caused  the  nuptials  to  be  cele- 
brated with  regal  magnificence,  and  in  the  marriage  articles, 
signed  with  his  own  hand,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  call  her 
"  my  daughter."  It  is  not  difficult,  therefore,  to  credit  the 
story  that  the  night  before  his  assassination  was  passed 
with  his  mistress,  Marion  Ogilby,  who  was  seen  leaving 
his  chamber  not  long  before  Norman  Leslie  and  Kirkaldy 
of  Grange  forced  their  way  into  his  castle.^  His  successor 
in  the  see  of  St.  Andrews,  John  Hamilton,  was  equally 
notorious  for  his  licentiousness ;  and  men  wondered,  not 
at  his  immorality,  but  at  his  taste  in  preferring  to  all  his 
other  concubines  one  whose  only  attraction  seemed  to  be 
the  zest  given  to  sin  by  the  fact  that  she  was  the  wife  of 
one  of  his  kindred.^ 

This  is  testimony  from  hostile  witnesses,  and  we  might 
perhaps  impugn  their  evidence  on  that  ground,  were  it  not 
that  the  Catholic  Church  of  Scotland  itself  admitted  the 
abandoned  morals  of  its  members  when  the  rapid  progress 
of  Calvinism  at  length  drove  it  in  self-defence  to  attempt 
a  reform  which  was  its  only  chance  of  salvation.  In  the 
last  Parliament  held  by  James  V.  before  his  death  in  1542, 
an  Act  was  passed  exhorting  the  prelates  and  ecclesiastics 
in  general  to  take  measures  "  for  reforming  of  their  lyvis, 
and  for  avoyding  of  the  opin  sclander  that  is  gevin  to  the 
haill  estates  throucht  the  spirituale  mens  ungodly  and 
dissolut  lyves."  ^  Nothing  was  then  done,  in  spite  of  this 
solemn  warning,  though  the  countenance  afforded  to  the 
Reformers  by  the  Regent  Arran,  strengthened  by  his 
alliance  with  Henry  VIII.,  was  daily  causing  the  heresy  to 
assume  more  dangerous  proportions.  When,  therefore, 
the  Catholic  party,  rallying  after  the  murder  of  Cardinal 

1  Buchanan.  Eer.  Scot.  Hist.  Lib.  xv. — Eobertson,  Hist,  of  Scot.  B.  II. — Knox 
71-2.— Calderwood  I.  222. 

2  Buchanan,  Lib.  xv. 

3  Wilkins  IV.  207. 


CALVINISM  159 

Beatoun,  at  length  triumphed  with  the  aid  of  France,  and 
sent  the  young  Queen  of  Scots  to  marry  Francis  II.,  they 
seemed  to  recognise  that  they  could  only  maintain  their 
advantage  by  meeting  public  opinion  in  endeavouring  to 
reform  the  Church.  Accordingly,  in  November  1549,  a 
council  was  convoked  at  Edinburgh,  of  which  the  first 
canon  declares  that  the  licentiousness  of  the  clergy  had 
given  rise  to  the  gravest  scandals,  to  repress  which  the 
rules  enjoined  by  the  Council  of  Basle  must  be  strictly  en- 
forced and  universally  obeyed.  The  second  canon  is  no 
less  significant  in  ordering  that  prelates  and  other  eccle- 
siastics shall  not  live  with  their  illegitimate  children,  nor 
provide  for  them  or  promote  them  in  the  paternal  churches, 
nor  marry  their  daughters  to  barons  by  endowing  them 
with  the  patrimony  of  Christ,  nor  cause  their  sons  to  be 
made  barons  by  the  same  means.  ^ 

This  was  of  small  avail.  Ten  years  afterwards,  the 
progress  of  heresy  becoming  ever  more  alarming,  another 
council  was  held,  in  March  1559,  to  devise  means  to  put 
a  stop  to  the  encroachments  of  the  enemy.  To  this 
assembly  the  Catholic  nobles  addressed  an  earnest  prayer 
for  reformation.  After  alluding  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
Parliament  of  1542,  they  add,  "And  siclyk  remembring  in 
diverss  of  the  lait  provinciale  counsales  haldin  within  this 
realm,  that  poynt  has  been  treittet  of,  and  sindrie  statutis 
synodale  maid  therupon,  of  the  quhilks  nevertheless  thar 
hes  folowit  nan  or  litill  fruitt  as  yitt,  bot  rathare  the  said 
estate  is  deteriorate  ...  it  is  maist  expedient  therefore 
that  thai  presentlie  condescend  to  seik  reformation  of  thir 
lyvis  .  .  .  and  naymlie  that  oppin  and  manifest  sins  and 
notor  ofFencis  be  forborn  and  abstenit  fra  in  tyme  to  cum." 
In  this  request  they  had  been  anticipated  by  the  Reformers, 
who  the  previous  year,  in  a  supplication  addressed  to  the 
Queen-regent,  included  among  their  demands  "  That  the 

1  Concil.  Edinburgens.  ann.  1549  can.  1,  2  (Wilkins  IV.  48). 


160  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

wicked,  slanderous,  and  detestable  life  of  Prelats  and  of  the 
State  Ecclesiasticall  may  be  reformed,  that  the  people  by 
them  have  not  occasion  (as  of  many  dayes  they  have  had) 
to  contemne  their  Ministrie  and  the  Preaching  whereof 
they  should  be  Messengers." 

The  council,  thus  urged  by  friend  and  foe,  recognised 
the  extreme  necessity  of  the  case,  and  did  its  best  to  cure 
the  immedicable  disease.  Its  first  canon  reaffirmed  the 
observance  of  the  Basilian  regulations,  and  appointed  a 
commission  empowered  to  enforce  them  ;  and,  that  nothing 
should  interfere  with  its  efficiency,  the  Archbishops  of  St. 
Andrews  and  Glasgow  made  a  special  renunciation  of  their 
exemption  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  council.  The 
second  canon,  in  forbidding  the  residence  of  illegitimate 
children  with  their  clerical  fathers,  endeavoured  to  procure 
obedience  to  the  rule  ordered  by  the  council  of  1.549,  by 
permitting  it  for  four  days  in  each  quarter,  and  by  a  penalty 
for  infractions  of  £200  in  the  case  of  an  archbishop,  £100 
in  that  of  a  bishop,  and  leaving  the  mulct  to  be  imposed 
on  inferior  ecclesiastics  at  the  discretion  of  the  officials. 
The  third  canon  prohibited  the  promotion  of  children  in 
their  fathers'  benefices,  and  supplicated  the  Queen-regent  to 
obtain  of  the  Pope  that  no  dispensations  should  be  granted 
to  evade  the  rule.  The  fourth  canon  inhibited  ecclesiastics 
from  marrying  their  daughters  to  barons  and  lairds,  and 
endowing  them  with  Church  lands,  or  making  their  sons 
barons  or  lairds  with  more  than  £100  annual  income,  under 
pain  of  fine  to  the  amount  of  the  dowry  or  lands  abstracted 
from  the  Church  ;  and  all  grants  of  Church  lands  or  tithes 
to  concubines  or  children  were  pronounced  null  and  void.^ 

1  Wilkins  IV.  207-10. — Knox,  p.  129.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  in  estimating 
these  penalties  that  they  are  expressed  in  pounds  Scots,  which  were  about  one-twelfth 
of  the  pound  sterling.  These  canons,  it  appears,  were  not  adopted  without  opposition. 
According  to  Knox,  "  But  herefrom  appealed  the  Bishop  of  Murray  and  other  pre- 
lates, saying  That  they  would  abide  the  canon  law.  And  so  they  might  well  enough 
do,  so  long  as  they  remained  Interpreters,  Dispensators,  Makers  and  Disannullers  of 
the  law"  (op.  cit,  119).      It  was  doubtless  on  some  such  considerations  that  the 


CALVINISM  161 

When  such  legislation  was  necessary,  the  disorders 
which  it  was  intended  to  repress  are  acknowledged  in  terms 
admitting  neither  of  palliation  nor  excuse.  The  extent  of 
the  evil  especially  alluded  to  in  the  latter  canons  is  further 
exemplified  by  the  fact  that  during  the  thirty  years 
immediately  following  the  establishment  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Scotland,  more  letters  of  legitimation  were  taken 
out  than  were  issued  in  the  two  subsequent  centuries. 
These  were  given  to  the  sons  of  the  clergy  who  were 
allowed  to  retain  their  benefices,  and  who  then  made  over 
the  property  to  their  natural  children.^ 

Such  being  the  state  of  morals  among  the  ministers 
of  the  old  religion,  it  is  easy  to  appreciate  the  immense 
advantage  enjoyed  by  the  Reformers.  They  made  good 
use  of  it.  Knox  loses  no  opportunity  of  stigmatising  the 
"  pestilent  Papists  and  Masse-mongers  "  as  "  adulterers  and 
whoremasters,"  who  were  thus  perpetually  held  up  to  the 
people  for  execration,  while  the  individual  wrongs  from 
which  so  many  suffered  were  noised  about  and  made  the 
subject  of  constantly  increasing  popular  indignation.^     Yet 

Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  relied  when  he  consented  to  waive  his  exemption  in  this 
matter.  His  personal  reputation  may  be  estimated  from  the  remark  of  Queen 
Mary  when,  in  December  1566,  he  performed  the  rite  of  baptism  on  James  VI, 
She  forbade  him  to  use  the  popular  ceremony  of  employing  his  saliva,  giving  a 
reason  which  was  in  the  highest  degree  derogatory  to  his  moral  character  (Sir 
J.  Y.  Simpson,  in  Proceedings  of  Epidemiological  Society  of  London,  November  5, 
1860). 

1  Kobertson,  Hist.  Scot.  Bk.  II. 

2  Thus  the  Parliament  of  1560,  which  effected  a  settlement  of  the  Reformed 
Religion,  was  urged  to  its  duty  by  a  Supplication  presented  in  the  name  of  "  The 
Barons,  Gentlemen,  Burgesses,  and  other  true  Subjects  of  this  Realm,  professing 
the  Lord  Jesus  within  the  same,"  which,  among  its  arguments  against  Catholicism, 
does  not  hesitate  to  assert :  "  Secondarily,  seeing  that  the  sacraments  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  most  shamefully  abused  and  profaned  by  that  Romane  Harlot  and  her  sworne 
vassals,  and  also  because  that  the  true  Discipline  of  the  Ancient  Church  is  utterly 
now  among  that  Sect  extinguished  :  For  who  within  the  Realme  are  more  corrupt  in 
life  and  manners  than  are  they  that  are  called  the  Clergie,  living  in  whoredom  and 
adultery,  deflouring  Virgins,  corrupting  Matrons,  and  doing  all  abomination  without 
fear  of  punishment.  We  humbly,  therefore,  desire  your  Honors  to  finde  remedy 
against  the  one  and  the  other." — Knox,  p.  255. 

VOL.  II.  L 


162  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  abrogation  of  celibacy  occupies  less  space  in  the  history 
of  the  Scottish  Reformation  than  in  that  of  any  other 
people  who  threw  off  the  allegiance  to  Rome. 

The  remote  position  of  Scotland  and  its  comparative 
barbarism  rendered  it  in  some  degree  inaccessible  to  the 
early  doctrines  of  Luther  and  Zwingli.  Before  it  began 
to  show  a  trace  of  the  new  ideas,  clerical  marriage  had  long 
passed  out  of  the  region  of  disputation  with  the  Reformers, 
and  was  firmly  established  as  one  of  the  inseparable  results 
of  the  doctrine  of  justification  professed  by  all  the  reformed 
Churches/  Not  only  was  it  thus  accepted  as  a  matter  of 
course  by  all  the  converts  to  the  new  faith,  but  that  faith, 
when  once  introduced,  spread  in  Scotland  with  a  rapidity 
proportioned  to  the  earnest  character  of  the  people.  The 
permission  to  read  the  Scriptures  in  the  vulgar  tongue, 
granted  by  Parliament  in  1543,  doubtless  had  much  to  do 
with  this ;  the  leaning  of  the  Regent  Arran  to  the  same 
side  gave  it  additional  impetus,  and  the  savage  fierceness 
with  which  the  Reformers  were  prepared  to  vindicate  their 
belief  is  shown  by  the  murder  of  Cardinal  Beatoun,  which 
was  countenanced  and  justified  by  Knox  himself.  Power- 
ful nobles  soon  saw  in  it  the  means  of  emancipating  them- 
selves from  the  vacillating  control  of  the  Regent ;  nor  was 
the  central  authority  strengthened  when,  in  1554,  the  reins 
of  power  were  wrested  from  the  feeble  Arran  and  confided 
to  the  Queen-dowager,  Mary  of  Guise,  who  found  herself 
obliged  to  encourage  each  party  by  turns,  and  to  balance 
one  against  the  other,  to  prevent  either  Catholic  or  Calvinist 
from  obtaining  control  over  the  state.     Then  too,  as  in 

1  This  doctrine  bore  its  full  share  in  the  history  of  the  Scottish  Keformation.  Two 
years  after  the  execution  of  the  protomartyr,  Patrick  Hamilton,  in  1528,  his  sister 
Catharine  was  arraigned  on  account  of  her  belief  in  justification  through  Christ. 
Learned  divines  urged  upon  her  with  prolix  earnestness  of  disputation  the  neces- 
sity of  works,  until  her  patience  gave  way,  and  she  rudely  exclaimed,  •'  Work  here 
and  work  there,  what  kind  of  working  is  all  this  ?  No  work  can  save  me  but  the 
work  of  Christ  my  Saviour." — By  the  connivance  of  the  King  she  was  enabled  to 
escape  to  England. — Calderwood's  Historie,  I,  109. 


CALVINISM  163 

Germany  and  England,  the  temporal  possessions  of  the 
Church  were  a  powerful  temptation  to  its  destruction. 
From  the  great  Duke  of  Chatelleraut  to  the  laird  of  some 
insignificant  peel,  all  were  needy  and  all  eager  for  a  share 
in  the  spoil.  When,  in  1560,  an  assembly  of  the  nobles  at 
Edinburgh  listened  to  a  disputation  on  the  Mass,  and  the 
Catholic  doctors  were  unable  to  defend  it  as  a  propitiatory 
sacrifice,  the  first  exclamation  of  the  lords  revealed  the 
secret  tendencies  of  their  thoughts :  "  We  have  been 
miserably  deceived  heretofore  ;  for  if  the  Mass  may  not 
obtain  remission  of  sins  to  the  quick  and  to  the  dead, 
wherefore  were  all  the  Abbies  so  richly  doted  and 
endowed  with  our  Temporall  lands  ?  "  ^ 

Of  course,  less  selfish  purposes  were  put  forward  to 
enlist  the  support  of  the  people.  On  the  1st  January  1559, 
when  the  storm  was  gathering,  but  before  it  had  burst,  the 
inmates  of  the  religious  houses  found  affixed  to  their  gates 
a  proclamation  in  the  name  of  "  The  Blinde,  Crooked, 
Lame,  Widows,  Orphans,  and  all  other  Poor,  so  visited  by 
the  hand  of  God  as  cannot  work,  "ordering  the  monks  to  leave 
the  patrimony  intended  to  relieve  the  suffering,  but  usurped 
by  indolent  shaveHngs,  giving  them  until  Whit-Sunday  to 
make  their  exit,  after  which  they  would  be  ejected  by  force, 
and  ending  with  the  significant  warning  :  "  Let  him,  there- 
fore, that  hath  before  stolen,  steal  no  more,  but  rather  let  him 
work  with  his  hands  that  he  may  be  helpfull  to  the  poore,"  ^ 

Such  a  cry  could  hardly  fail  to  be  popular,  but  when 
the  threat  was  carried  into  execution,  the  blind  and  the 
crooked,  the  widow  and  orphan  received  so  small  a  share 
of  the  spoil  that  they  were  worse  off  than  before.  As  we 
have  already  seen  in  England,  the  destruction  of  the 
Scottish  monasteries  was  the  commencement  of  the 
necessity  of  making  some  public  provision  for  paupers.^ 

1  Knox,  p.  283. 

2  Knox,  p.  119.— Calderwood,  I.  423. 

3  Thus  the  Assembly  of  the  Church  in  1562  drew  up  a  remonstrance  to  the  Queen, 


164  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

The  nobles  seized  the  hon's  share  ;  the  rest  fell  to  the 
crown,  subject  to  the  payment  of  the  very  moderate 
stipends  assigned  to  the  comparatively  few  ministers 
required  by  the  new  establishment,  and  these  stipends 
were  so  irregularly  paid  that  the  unfortunate  ministers  were 
frequently  in  danger  of  starvation,  and  were  constantly 
besieging  the  court  with  their  dolorous  complaints.  Where 
the  lands  and  revenues  went  is  indicated  with  grim  humour 
by  Knox,  in  describing  the  resistance  offered  in  1560  to  the 
adoption  of  his  Book  of  Discipline  by  those  who  had  pro- 
fessed great  zeal  for  the  Lord  Jesus.  Lord  Erskine  had 
been  one  of  the  first  and  most  consistent  of  the  "  Lords  of 
the  Congregation,"  yet  he  also  refused  to  sign  the  book — 
'*  And  no  wonder,  for  besides  that  he  had  a  very  evill 
woman  to  his  wife,  if  the  Poore,  the  Schooles,  and  the 
Ministerie  of  the  Church  had  their  owne,  his  Kitchin 
would  lack  two  parts  and  more  of  that  which  he  unjustly 
now  possesseth."^ 

Yet,  when  compared  with  the  rich  abbatial  manors  of 
England  or  the  princely  foundations  of  Germany,  the  spoil 
of  the  Church  was  mean  indeed.  Knox  had  resided  much 
abroad,  and  had  seen  the  vast  wealth  which  the  piety  of 
ages  had  showered  upon  the  Church  in  the  most  opulent 
lands  of  Europe,  yet  his  simplicity  or  fanaticism  finds 
source  of  wondering  comment  in  the  homespun  luxury  of 
the  unfortunate  monks  whom  he  assisted  in  dispossessing. 
When  the  destruction  of  the  monasteries  1559  commenced 
by  a  brawl  in  Perth,  caused  by  a  sermon  preached  by  Kjiox, 
and  three  prominent  convents  were  broken  up,  he  expatiates 

in  which  they  requested  that  "in  every  Parish  some  of  the  Tythes  may  be  assigned 
to  the  sustentation  and  maintenance  of  the  poor  within  the  same  :  And  likewise 
that  some  publike  relief  may  be  provided  for  the  poor  within  Burroughs." — Knox, 
p.  339. 

1  Ibid.  p.  278.  The  Book  was  signed  at  Edinburgh,  27  January,  1561,  but  only 
after  the  adoption  of  a  proviso:  "Provided  that  the  Bishops,  Abbots,  Priors,  and 
other  Prelates  and  Beneficed  men,  which  else  have  adjoyned  themselves  to  us, 
brooke  the  revenues  of  their  Benefices  during  their  lifetimes." — Worldly  wisdom 
certainly  was  not  lost  sight  of  in  the  ardour  of  a  new  and  purer  religion. 


CALVINISM  165 

on  the  extravagance  revealed  to  sight :  "  And  in  very  deed 
the  Grey-Friers  was  a  place  so  well  provided  that  unlesse 
honest  men  had  seen  the  same,  we  would  have  feared  to 
have  reported  what  provision  they  had,  their  sheets, 
blankets,  beds  and  coverlets  were  such  that  no  Earle  in 
Scotland  had  better :  Their  naperie  was  fine  ;  they  were 
but  8  persons  in  the  Convent,  and  yet  they  had  8  puncheons 
of  salt  beef  (consider  the  time  of  the  yeere,  the  eleventh 
of  May),  wine,  beere,  and  ale,  beside  store  of  victuals 
belonging  thereto."  ^  Imagine  an  abbot  of  St.  Albans  or 
an  abbess  of  Poissy  reduced  to  the  coverlets  and  salt  beef 
which  the  stern  Calvinist  deemed  an  indulgence  so  great  as 
to  be  incredible  ! 

Still,  in  so  impoverished  a  country  as  the  Scotland  of 
that  period,  even  these  poor  spoils  were  a  motive  sufficient 
to  prove  a  powerful  aid  to  the  conquering  party  in  the 
struggle.  And  yet,  amid  all  the  miserable  ambitions  of 
the  Erskines  and  Murrays,  the  Huntleys  and  Bothwells, 
who  occupied  the  prominent  places  in  the  court  and  camp, 
we  should  do  grievous  wrong  to  the  spirit  which  triumphed 
at  last  over  the  force  and  fraud  of  the  Guises,  if  we  attri- 
buted to  temporal  motives  alone  the  movement  which 
expelled  licentious  prelates  and  drove  Queen  Mary  to  the 
fateful  refuge  of  Fotheringay.  The  selfish  aims  of  the 
nobles  would  have  been  fruitless  but  for  the  zealous 
earnestness  of  the  people,  led  by  men  of  iron  nature,  who 
doubted  themselves  as  little  as  they  doubted  their  God, 
and  who,  in  the  death-struggle  with  Antichrist,  were  as 
ready  to  suffer  as  they  were  ruthless  to  infhct.  Nor  can 
the  disorders  of  the  Catholic  clergy  be  rightly  imputed  to 
the  temperament  of  the  race,  for  the  Reformers,  who 
carried  with  them  so  large  a  portion  of  the  middle  and 
lower  classes,  preached  a  system  of  rigid  morality  to  which 
the  world  had  been  a  stranger  since  the  virtues  of  the 

1  Knox,  136. 


166  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Germanic  tribes  had  been  lost  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
Empire ;  and  they  not  merely  preached  it,  but  obtained 
its  embodiment  in  a  code  of  repressive  laws  which  their 
vigilant  authority  strictly  enforced. 

I  have  said  above  that  the  question  of  celibacy  appears 
but  rarely  in  the  course  of  the  contest,  yet,  notwithstand- 
ing the  causes  which  rendered  it  a  less  prominent  subject 
of  debate  than  elsewhere,  it  occasionally  rises  to  view.  The 
first  instance  of  clerical  marriage  that  I  find  recorded 
occurred  in  1538,  when  Thomas  Coklaw,  parish  priest  of 
Tillibodie,  married  a  widow  of  the  same  village  named 
Margaret  Jameson.  This,  however,  was  not  done  openly 
and  defiantly,  as  in  Germany,  but  in  secret,  and  the 
married  couple  continued  to  dwell  apart.  That  the 
infraction  of  the  canons  was  not  without  danger  was  shown 
by  the  result,  for,  when  it  became  known,  Coklaw  was 
tried  by  the  Bishop  of  Dunblane  and  condemned  to  per- 
petual imprisonment ;  but  his  relatives  broke  open  his 
dungeon,  and  he  escaped  to  England.  When,  early  in  the 
following  year,  a  group  of  Reformers,  including  Dean 
Thomas  Forret,  Friar  John  Killore,  Friar  John  Beverege, 
and  others,  were  put  on  trial,  their  presence  at  this 
wedding  was  one  of  the  crimes  for  which  they  were  exe- 
cuted upon  Castle  Hill  at  Edinburgh.^  In  fact,  the 
abrogation  of  the  rule  of  celibacy,  in  Scotland  as  elsewhere, 
was  necessarily  one  of  the  leading  points  at  issue  between 
the  Reformers  and  the  Catholics.  Thus,  when  George 
Wishart,  one  of  the  early  heretics  who  ventured  openly  to 
preach  the  Lord  Jesus,  was  seized,  in  spite  of  powerful 
protectors,  and  after  a  prolonged  captivity  was  brought 
for  trial  before  Cardinal  Beatoun  in  1545,  in  the  accu- 
sation against  him  article  14  asserted,  "  Thou  false  Here- 
ticke  hast  taught  plainly  against  the  Vows  of  Monks, 
Friers,  Nuns,  and   Priests,  saying.  That  whosoever  was 

1  Calderwood's  Historie,  1. 123-4. 


CALVINISM  167 

bound  to  such  like  Vows,  they  vowed  themselves  to  the 
state  of  damnation.  Moreover,  That  it  was  lawfuU  for 
Priests  to  marry  wives  and  not  to  live  sole."  Wishart 
tacitly  confessed  the  truth  of  this  impeachment  by  rejoin- 
ing, "  But  as  many  as  have  not  the  gift  of  chastity,  nor 
yet  for  the  Gospel  have  overcome  the  concupiscence  of  the 
flesh,  and  have  vowed  chastity ;  ye  have  experience, 
although  1  should  hold  my  tongue,  to  what  inconveniences 
they  have  exposed  themselves."  ^  He  was  accordingly 
condemned  as  an  incorrigible  heretic,  and  promptly  burnt. 
Yet  when,  in  1547,  John  Knox  held  his  disputation  with 
Dean  Wynrame  and  Friar  Arbuckle,  though  the  nine 
articles  drawn  up  for  discussion  ranged  from  the  supre- 
macy of  the  Pope  and  the  existence  of  purgatory  to  the 
payment  of  tithes,  the  subject  of  vows  of  chastity  was  not 
even  mentioned.^ 

Still,  as  late  as  1558  the  trial  of  Walter  Mill  shows  that 
the  question  was  even  yet  agitated  in  the  controversies 
between  the  polemics  of  the  two  parties.  Mill  had  been 
a  priest,  and  had  married,  and  the  first  of  the  articles  of 
accusation  against  him  was  that  he  asserted  the  lawful- 
ness of  sacerdotal  marriage.  To  this  he  boldly  assented, 
declaring  that  he  regarded  matrimony  as  a  blessed  bond, 
open  for  all  men  to  enter,  and  that  it  were  better  for  priests 
to  marry  than  to  vow  chastity  and  not  preserve  it,  as  they 
were  wont  to  do.  Condemned  to  the  stake,  the  unfortu- 
nate old  man  commanded  the  sympathies  of  the  people, 
even  in  the  archiepiscopal  town  of  St.  Andrews.  No  one 
could  be  found  to  act  as  executioner,  until  at  length  one 
of  the  servants  of  the  archbishop  consented  to  fill  the 
abhorrent  office;  but  when  a  rope  was  sought  with 
which  to  bind  the  wretched  sufferer  to  the  stake,  no  one 

1  Knox,  p.  65. — Knox's  characteristic  comment  on  this  is — "  When  he  had  said 
these  words,  they  were  all  dumb,  thinking  it  better  to  have  ten  concubines  than 
one  wife." 

2  Calderwood,  I.  231  sqq. 


168  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

would  furnish  it,  and  the  tragedy  was  necessarily  post- 
poned. Equally  unsuccessful  was  the  next  day's  search, 
until  the  archbishop,  fearing  to  lose  his  victim,  gave  the 
cords  of  his  own  pavilion,  and  the  sentence  was  carried  into 
effect.  Even  after  the  sacrifice,  the  popular  feeling  was 
manifested  by  raising  a  pile  of  stones  as  a  monument  on 
the  place  of  torture,  and  as  often  as  these  were  cast  aside 
by  the  priests  they  were  replaced  by  the  people,  until  the 
followers  of  the  archbishop  carried  them  off  by  night,  and 
used  them  for  building.^ 

These  incidents  show  us  that  the  question  received  its 
share  of  attention  in  the  controversy  by  which  each  side 
endeavoured  to  secure  the  support  of  the  nation,  but  it 
makes  no  appearance  in  public  negotiations  and  declara- 
tions. Thus,  in  1558,  when  the  growing  strength  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  led  the  Catholics  to  offer  con- 
cessions, which  were  rejected  by  the  conscious  power  of 
the  Reformers,  there  was  no  allusion  to  celibacy  on  either 
side.  In  fact,  between  the  respective  leaders  the  questions 
were  almost  purely  personal  and  political,  while  among 
the  conscientiously  religious  supporters  of  either  party 
opinions  were  too  rigidly  defined  for  argument.  Convic- 
tions were  too  divergent  and  too  firm  for  compromise  or 
concession  to  be  possible,  and  Catholic  and  Calvinist  grimly 
recognised,  as  by  a  tacit  understanding,  the  alternative  of 
extermination.  When  the  English  alliance  at  last  drove 
the  Catholics  to  the  wall,  and  in  July  1560  there  assembled 
the  Parliament  to  which  by  the  Articles  of  Leith  was 
referred  the  duty  of  effecting  a  settlement  of  the  kingdom, 
the  vanquished  party  made  no  struggle  against  their  fate. 
Such  Catholic  prelates  and  lords  as  took  their  seats  re- 
frained from  all  debate,  and  allowed  the  victors  to  arrange 
the  temporal  and  spiritual  affairs  of  the  kingdom  at  their 
pleasure. 

1  Knox,  p.  130.— Calderwood,  I.  337  sqq.— Burnet,  Vol.  II. 


CALVINISM  169 

In  this  settlement,  our  subject  affords  a  curious  com- 
parison between  the  Enghsh  and  Scotch  Churches.  In  the 
former,  at  a  period  even  later  than  this,  it  was  considered 
necessary  to  embody  a  renunciation  of  celibacy  in  the 
organic  law,  which  has  been  maintained  to  the  present  day. 
In  the  latter,  ecclesiastical  marriage  had  become  already  so 
firmly  established  in  the  minds  of  the  Reformers  that  it 
was  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course,  which  needed  no  special 
confirmation.  Although  laws  were  passed  prohibiting  the 
Mass  and  abolishing  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  none  were 
thought  necessary  to  legalise  the  marriages  of  the  clergy. 
Even  in  Knox's  Confession  of  Faith,  adopted  by  the  Par- 
liament on  July  17,  there  is  no  direct  allusion  to  the 
matter.  The  only  passage  which  can  be  construed  as 
having  any  bearing  upon  it  occurs  in  Chapter  XIV.,  when 
considering  "  What  works  are  reputed  good  before  God  " : 
"  And  evill  works  we  affirme  not  onely  those  that  are  ex- 
pressly done  against  God's  commandment,  but  those  also 
that  in  matters  of  religion  and  worshipping  of  God  have 
no  assurance,  but  the  invention  and  opinion  of  man,  which 
God  from  the  beginning  hath  ever  rejected,  as  by  the 
prophet  Isaiah  and  by  our  Master  Christ  Jesus  we  are 
taught  in  these  words — In  vain  do  they  worship  me,  teach- 
ing doctrines  which  are  precepts  of  Men} 

Nothing  more,  in  fact,  was  needed  when  the  triumph  of 
the  new  ideas  was  so  complete  that  Knox  could  exultingly 
exclaim, "For what  Adulterer,  what  Fornicator,  what  known 
Masse-monger  or  pestilent  Papist  durst  have  been  seen  in 
publike  within  any  Reformed  Town  within  this  Realme 
before  that  the  Queen  arrived  ?  .  .  .  .  For  while  the 
Papists  were  so  confounded  that  none  within  the  Realme 
durst  avow  the  hearing  or  saying  of  Masse  then  the  thieves 
of  Tiddisdale  durst  avow  their  stouth  or  stealing  in  the 
presence  of  any  upright  judge."  ^     When  persecution  thus 

Knox,  p.  263.  2  ibid.  p.  304. 


170  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

had  changed  sides,  no  minister  could  feel  that  his  nuptials 
required  special  authorisation.  How  thoroughly  indeed 
they  were  legitimated  is  shown  by  a  curious  little  incident 
occurring  in  1563.  A  minister  named  Baron  made  com- 
plaint to  the  General  Assembly  that  his  wife,  an  English 
woman  named  Anne  Goodacre,  "  after  great  rebellions  by 
her  committed,"  had  left  him  and  taken  refuge  in  England, 
whereupon  he  requested  the  Assembly  to  have  her  brought 
back  to  him.  Spotswood,  the  Superintendent  of  Lothian, 
with  Knox  and  Craig,  actually  wrote  to  Archbishop 
Parker  officially  asking  him  to  have  the  woman  sought  for 
and  sent  to  Scotland  ;  but  Parker,  considering  it  to  be  an 
international  question  and  beyond  his  sphere,  prudently 
referred  the  request  to  Secretary  Cecil. ^ 

It  were  foreign  to  our  object  to  enter  into  the  dark 
details  of  Mary's  short  and  disastrous  reign.  The  intrigues 
of  the  camarilla,  the  boyish  weakness  of  Darnley,  the 
subtlety  of  Rizzio,  and  the  coarse  ambition  of  Huntley  and 
Bothwell,  were  alike  harmless  against  the  earnest  reverence 
of  the  people  for  the  new  faith  ;  and  the  expiring  struggles 
of  Catholicism  were  too  feeble  to  give  any  practical  impor- 
tance to  the  vain  attempts  at  reaction. 

1  Strype's  Parker,  Book  II.  ch.  xviii. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  the  dissolute  and  un- 
christian life  of  the  priesthood  was  one  of  the  efficient 
causes  which  led  to  the  success  of  the  Reformation.  At 
an  early  period  in  the  movement,  the  Catholic  Church  felt 
the  necessity  of  purifying  itself,  if  it  was  to  retain  the 
veneration  of  the  people  ;  and  the  veneration  of  the  people 
was  now  not  merely  a  source  of  revenue,  but  a  condition 
of  the  very  existence  of  the  stupendous  structure  of  Latin 
Christianity.  As  soon  as  it  became  clearly  apparent  that 
Lutheranism  was  not  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary 
machinery,  and  that  it  was  spreading  with  a  rapidity  which 
portended  the  worst  results,  an  effort  was  made  to  remove 
the  reproach  which  incorrigible  immorality  had  entailed 
upon  the  Church.  Allusion  has  been  made  above  to  the 
stringent  measures  of  reform  proclaimed  by  the  legate 
Campeggio  at  Ratisbon  in  1524,  in  which  he  acknowledged 
that  the  new  heresy  had  no  little  excuse  in  the  detestable 
morals  and  abandoned  lives  of  the  clergy — a  truth  re- 
peatedly admitted  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.^     His 

1  The  orator  of  the  Council  of  Cologne  in  1527  sharply  reminded  the  assembled 
prelates  that  they  must  set  the  example  of  obeying  their  own  statutes,  and  that  they 
could  not  expect  the  people  to  reverence  the  true  Church  so  long  as  it  notoriously 
bade  defiance  to  the  laws  of  God  and  man.  "  Quasi  prsescribatur  lex  cujus  sancitor 
voluerit  esse  exlex,  Parendum  enim  est  legi  quam  quisque  sancit  .  .  .  Audis 
prseterea  non  licere  plurimas  habere  uxores,  quae  animum  tuum  alliciant  ;  non 
decere  domi  alere  tot  scorta  tot  Veneres,  quae  te  continue  exedunt,  tuamque  sub- 
stantiam  disperdunt.  .  .  .  His  et  aliis  datur  scandalum  populo ;  prabetur  offen- 
diculum  vulgo,  cui  hac  tempestate  vilet  et  contemptui  est  ordo  quilibet  sacer. 
Vilis  plebs  te  sacerdotem  nunc  cachinnis  atque  ludibriis  incissit  et  odit,  qui  calum- 
niandi  ansam  ultro  prsebueris.    Dicit  namque  :  tot  hie,  aut  ille,  scorta  domi  sure  ex 


172  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

well-meant  endeavours  had  little  result,  and  we  have  seen 
that,  some  years  later,  Erasmus  still  urged  the  abolition  of 
the  rule  of  celibacy  as  the  only  practicable  mode  of  remov- 
ing the  scandal. 

Not  long  afterwards  the  Gallican  Church  made  a 
strenuous  effort  of  the  same  nature  to  check  the  spread  of 
Lutheranism.  In  1521,  before  it  had  to  encounter  a  hos- 
tile heresy,  the  Council  of  Paris  had  deplored  the  pervading 
corruptions  with  exceeding  candour.  The  condition  of 
conventual  discipline  was  such  as  to  threaten  the  very 
existence  of  the  system,  and  the  customary  denunciations 
of  ineradicable  abuses  were  freely  published.^  In  1528 
the  Cardinal-legate  Duprat,  Chancellor  of  France,  held  a 
council  in  Paris,  where  he  condemned,  seriatim,  the  new 
doctrines  as  heresies,  and  elevated  the  rule  of  celibacy  to 
the  dignity  of  a  point  of  faith.^  He  also  caused  the  adop- 
tion of  a  series  of  canons  designed  to  remove  from  the 
Church  the  disgrace  caused  by  the  laxity  of  clerical  morals 
and  manners.  The  bishops  were  instructed  to  enforce  the 
decrees  of  the  councils  and  of  the  fathers  until  concubinage 
and  incontinence  should  be  completely  exterminated,  and 
a  rule  was  laid  down  which  would  have  been  eventually 
effectual  if  conscientiously  carried  out.     No  one  was  there- 

patrimonio  Crucifixi  nutrit,  quo  non  sordida  scorta,  sed  pauperes  Christi  forent  sus- 
tentandi."— Concil.  Colon,  ann.  1527  (Hartzheim  VI.  210-213). 

So  at  the  Council  of  Augsburg,  in  1548,  the  orator  dwelt  upon  the  advantage 
which  the  heretics  derived  from  the  sins  of  the  clergy  :  "  Non  estis  nescii,  quemad- 
modum  nos  haeretici  apud  populum  perpetuo  traducant  :  nos  scortatores,  nos  ambi- 
tiosos,  nos  avaros,  nos  ignavos,  et  rudes  esse,  nos  otio  semper,  luxui  et  ventri  servire, 
identidem  vociferantur  .  .  .  Superbe  itaque  illi  :  sed  utinam  non  nimium  ssepe 
vere  :  nam  si  vera  potius  hoc  loco,  quam  plausibilia,  dicenda  sint ;  negare  certe  non 
possumus,  quin  maximam  ad  nos  accusandos  occasionem  saepe  dederimus." — Concil. 
Augustan,  ann.  1548  (Hartzheim  VI.  388). 

1  Concil.  Parisiens.  ann.  1521  (Martene  Ampl.  Coll.  VIII.  1018). 

2  Quisquis  igitur  contra  sacrorum  conciliorum  et  patrum  decreta,  sacerdotes, 
diaconos  aut  subdiaconos  lege  coelibatus  non  teneri  docuerit  aut  liberas  illis  con- 
cesserit  nuptias,  inter  haereticos,  omni  tergiversatione  rejecta  numeretur. — Concil. 
Paris,  ann.  1528,  Decret.  8. 

This  I  think  is  the  first  authoritative  promulgation  of  Damiani's  doctrine,  which, 
as  we  shaU  hereafter  see,  was  adopted  and  extended  by  the  Council  of  Trent. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  173 

after  to  be  admitted  to  holy  orders  without  written 
testimony  as  to  his  age  and  moral  character  from  his 
parish  priest,  substantiated  by  the  oaths  of  two  or  three 
approved  witnesses/  At  the  same  time  similar  councils 
were  held  at  Bourges  by  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  Tournon, 
and  at  Lyons  by  Claude,  Bishop  of  Macon.  To  what 
extent  these  excellent  rules  were  put  in  force  may  be 
guessed  by  a  description  of  the  French  clergy  in  1560,  as 
portrayed  by  Monluc,  Bishop  of  Valence,  in  a  speech 
before  the  Royal  Council.  The  parish  priests  were  for  the 
most  part  engrossed  in  worldly  pursuits,  and  had  obtained 
their  preferment  by  illicit  means,  nor  did  there  seem  much 
prospect  of  an  improvement  so  long  as  the  prelates  were 
in  the  habit  of  bestowing  the  benefices  within  their  gift  on 
their  lackeys,  barbers,  cooks,  and  other  serving  men, 
rendering  the  ecclesiastics  as  a  body  an  object  of  contempt 
to  the  people.^  We  need,  therefore,  not  be  surprised  to 
find  in  the  councils  of  the  period  a  repetition  of  all  the  old 
injunctions,  showing  that  the  maintenance  of  improper 
consorts  and  the  disgrace  of  priestly  families  were  un- 
diminished evils.*  This  description  of  the  French  clergy 
is  most  emphatically  extended  to  the  whole  Church  in  the 
project  for  reformation  drawn  up  by  order  of  Paul  III.  in 
1538,  and  to  these  evils  are  attributed  the  innumerable 
scandals  which  afflicted  the  faithful,  as  well  as  the  con- 
tempt in  which  the  ecclesiastical  body  was  held  and  the 
virtual  extinction  of  all  reverence  for  the  services  of 
religion.*  No  improvement,  however,  was  to  be  expected 
as  long  as  a  concubinary  priest  could  obtain  from  the  papal 
chancery  for  seven  gros  tournois  letters  of  absolution  and 


1  Concil.  Paris,  ann.  1528,  Decret.  8. 

2  Pierre  de  la  Place,  Estat  de  Eel.  et  Kep.  Liv.  III. 

3  Concil.  Narbonnens.  ann.  1551  can.  22  (Harduin.  X.  468). 

4  Consilium    de   Emend.  Eccles.    (Le    Plat,    Monument.  Concil.    Trident.    II. 
598). 


174  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

dispensation   which    specially    set    aside    the    decrees   of 
bishops  and  local  councils.^ 

In  1530  Clement  VII.  addressed  himself  vigorously  to 
the  task  of  putting  an  end  to  the  scandalous  practice  of 
hereditary  transmission  of  benefices,  which  he  describes  as 
almost  universal.  A  special  bull  was  issued,  prohibiting  the 
children  of  priests  or  monks  from  enjoying  any  preferment 
in  their  father's  benefices,  and,  recognising  that  the  Roman 
Curia  was  one  of  the  chief  obstacles  to  all  reform,  he  pro- 
vided that  if  he  or  his  successors  should  grant  dispensations 
permitting  such  infraction  of  the  canons,  they  should  be 
considered  as  issued  unwittingly,  and  be  held  null  and 
void.^  Like  so  many  others,  this  bull  seems  to  have  been 
forgotten  almost  as  soon  as  issued,  and  the  pecuniary 
needs  of  the  Roman  court  rendered  it  unable  to  abandon 
so  lucrative  a  source  of  revenue.  Even  as  soon  as  1538 
the  cardinals  to  whom  Paul  III.  committed  the  task  of 
drawing  up  the  project  of  reformation  cautiously  intimate 
that  they  hear  of  such  dispensations  being  granted,  and  to 
this  they  attribute  a  large  share  of  the  troubles  of  the 
Church  and  the  enmity  felt  towards  the  Holy  See.^  This 
warning  passed  unheeded,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1559 
a  Scottish  council  prayed  the  Queen-regent  to  use  her 
influence  with  the  Pope  to  prevent  dispensations  being 
granted  to  enable  illegitimate  children  to  hold  preferment 
in  their  fathers'  benefices,*  while  in  1562  the  frequency 
and  readiness  with  which  such   dispensations  were  still 

1  Pro  concubinario  absoluto  et  dispensatio  super  irregularitate  :  et  hoc  contra 
provinciales  et  synodales  constitutiones,  g.  vii. — Libellus  Taxarum  super  quibusdam 
in  Cancellaria  Apostolica  impetrandis,  fol.  17a  (White,  Historical  Library,  Cornell 
University,  A.  6124). 

2  Bull,  ad  Canonum  (Mag.  Pull.  Roman.  Ed.  1692,  I.  682). 

Alexander  III.,  in  prohibiting  the  sons  of  priests  from  enjoying  their  fathers' 
benefices,  had  permitted  it  if  a  third  party  intervened  and  a  dispensation  for  the 
irregularity  were  obtained.  The  letter  of  this  law  was  frequently  observed,  but  its 
spirit  eluded  by  nominally  passing  the  preferment  through  the  hands  of  a  man  of 
straw,  and  it  was  this  abuse  which  Clement  desired  to  eradicate. 

3  Consilium  de  Emend.  Eccles.  (Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  II.  599.) 

4  Wilkins  IV.  209. 


THE  COUNCIL  ;OF  TRENT  175 

•a 

obtained  are  enumerated  in  a  list  of  abuses  laid  before  the 
Council  of  Trent  by  Sebastian,  King  of  Portugal,  as  one 
of  the  matters  requiring  reformation  by  the  supreme  power 
of  the  council.^  To  this  and  other  similar  appeals  the 
papal  legates  loftily  replied  that  laws  were  not  to  be  pre- 
scribed to  the  Holy  See  ;  ^  and  the  motive  for  the  refusal 
is  easily  comprehended  when  we  see  that  in  the  '*  Taxes  of 
the  Penitentiary "  the  price  for  a  dispensation  admitting 
the  bastard  of  a  priest  to  holy  orders  was  a  ducat  and  a 
carlino.^ 

In  Spain,  Ribadeneira,  the  disciple  of  Ignatius  Loyola, 
tells  us  that  the  priestly  concubines  were  accustomed  to 
pledge  their  faith  to  their  consorts  as  if  united  in  wedlock, 
and  that  they  wore  the  distinguishing  costume  of  married 
women,  as  though  glorying  in  their  shame,  which  so 
scandalised  St.  Ignatius,  on  his  return,  in  1535,  to  his 
native  land,  that  he  exerted  his  influence  with  the 
temporal  authorities  to  procure  the  enactment  and  en- 
forcement of  sundry  laws  which  relieved  the  Spanish 
Church  of  so  great  an  opprobrium.*  We  may  reasonably, 
however,  doubt  the  success  of  his  efforts.  Some  ten  years 
later,  Alphonso  de  Castro  asserts  that  the  priesthood  was 
one  of  the  efficient  causes  of  the  spread  of  heresy,  and  that 

1  Le  Plat,  V.  88.  The  opinion  which  was  held  of  the  venality  of  the  Boman 
court  in  such  matters  is  forcibly  expressed  in  the  instructions  given  to  Laussac, 
the  French  ambassador  at  Trent.  He  is  ordered  to  press  the  abolition  of  the 
papal  power  of  dispensation  "attendu  que  nul  n'en  est  refuse  s'il  a  argent." — 
Ibid.  p.  153. 

2  Ejus  sanctitati  lex  non  sit  prsescribenda. — Ibid.  p.  385. 

3  Tax.  Sac.  Poenitent.  Ed.  Gibbings,  p.  13, — This  was  only  one  carlino  (the 
tenth  part  of  a  ducat,  equal  to  about  f ourpence)  more  than  the  charge  for  the  bastard 
of  a  layman. 

*  Ribadeneira,  Vit.  Ignat.  Loyolse,  Lib.  ii.  cap.  v.  From  this  it  would  appear 
that  the  'custom  of  permanent  unions,  described  by  Bishop  Pelayo  two  centuries 
earlier,  was  still  flourishing.  As  stated  above  (p.  17),  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  in 
repeated  edicts,  from  1480  to  1503,  had  endeavoured  to  put  an  end  to  notorious  con- 
cubinage, by  fining,  scourging,  and  banishing  the  women  (Novisima  Recopilacion, 
Lib.  XII.  Tit.  xxvi.  leyes  3-5.— Coleccion  de  Cidulas,  III.  113,  Madrid,  1829),  for  the 
men  were  beyond  their  jurisdiction.  Possibly  it  was  these  laws  that  Loyola  sought 
to  revive. 


176  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

it  would  be  difficult  for  orthodoxy  to  maintain  itself 
without  the  direct  interposition  of  God,  in  view  of  the 
scandalous  lives  and  general  worthlessness  of  all  orders 
of  ecclesiastics,  whose  excessive  numbers,  turpitude,  and 
ignorance  exposed  them  to  contempt.^  His  contemporary, 
the  canon  lawyer  Bernardius  D^az  de  Luzo,  indeed,  finds 
in  the  universality  of  concubinage  a  reason  for  its  partial 
condonation,  for,  while  deploring  its  frequency,  he  warns 
judges  not  to  be  over  severe  in  its  repression,  since  so  few 
are  found  guiltless,  and  there  is  danger  that  those  who  are 
restrained  from  it  may  be  forced  into  darker  sins.*  How 
difficult,  under  such  circumstances,  was  any  reform  may 
be  gathered  from  a  memorial  presented  in  1556  to 
Philip  II.  by  Inquisitor- General  Valdes.  He  relates  that 
when  he  became  Archbishop  of  Seville,  in  1546,  he  found 
the  clergy  and  the  dignitaries  of  the  cathedral  so  demo- 
ralised that  they  had  no  shame  in  their  children  and 
grandchildren :  their  women  lived  with  them  openly  as 
though  married,  and  accompanied  them  to  church,  while 
many  kept  in  their  houses  public  gaming  tables,  which 
were  the  resort  of  disorderly  characters.  To  remedy  these 
evils  he  instituted  vigorous  measures  of  reform,  but  in  this 
he  was  greatly  impeded  and  put  to  much  expense  by 
appeals  and  suits  in  Rome  and  in  Granada,  and  in  the 
Royal  Council  and  before  apostolic  judges.'  In  view  of 
the  facility  with  which  absolutions  and  dispensations  could 
be  procured,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  readily  a  persistent 
reformer  could  be  embroiled  with  the  Holy  See. 

About  the  same  time  Herman  von  Wied,  Archbishop 
of  Cologne,  undertook  the  reformation  of  his  extensive 
diocese.  He  assembled  a  council,  which  issued  a  series 
of  275  canons,  prescribing  minutely  the  functions,  duties, 

1  Alphonsi  de  Castro  de  justa  Hsereticoram  Punitione,  Lib.  ill.  cap.  5. 

2  Diaz  de  Luco,  Practica  criminalis  canonica,  cap.  Ixxiii.  (Venetiis,  1543.) 

3  Archivo   general   de   Simancas,    Patronato    Real,    Inquisicion,    Legajo    unico 
fol.  76. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  177 

and  obligations  of  all  grades  of  the  clergy.  As  regards  the 
delicate  subject  of  concubinage,  he  contented  himself  with 
quoting  the  Nicene  canon  prohibiting  the  residence  of 
women  not  nearly  connected  by  blood,  and  added  that  if 
the  degeneracy  of  the  times  prevented  the  enforcement 
of  a  regulation  so  strict,  at  all  events  he  forbade  the 
companionship  of  females  obnoxious  to  suspicion.^  The 
good  archbishop  himself  could  hardly  have  expected  that 
so  mild  an  allocution  would  have  much  effect  upon  a 
perverse  and  hardened  generation,  but  custom  had  so 
established  itself  that  even  the  loftiest  prelates  shrank 
from  encountering  the  risk  attendant  upon  an  attempt  to 
enforce  the  canons.  This  is  seen  when,  in  1537,  Matthew, 
Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  assembled  his  provincial  synod, 
which,  recognising  the  urgent  necessity  of  preserving  the 
Church  and  protecting  the  people,  adopted  a  series  of 
reformatory  decrees.  Afraid  of  promulgating  them,  it 
was  resolved  to  suppress  them  for  the  present,  under  the 
pretext  that  the  approaching  General  Council  would 
regulate  the  discipline  of  the  Church  at  large ;  and  the 
archbishop  contented  himself  with  a  pastoral  letter 
addressed  to  his  suffragans,  in  which  he  urged  upon  them 
to  consider  the  contamination  to  which  the  laity  were 
exposed  through  the  vices  of  their  pastors,  and  timidly 
suggested  that,  if  the  clergy  could  not  restrain  their 
passions,  they  should  at  all  events  indulge  them  secretly, 
so  that  scandal  might  be  avoided  and  the  punishment  of 
their  transgressions  be  left  to  an  avenging  God.^ 

This  timidity  finds  its  explanation  in  the  report  by  the 
papal  nuncio  Morone  of  an  interview,  in  1542,  with  the 
Archbishop  of  Mainz,  on   the  subject  of  the    reform  of 

1  Concil.  Coloniens.  ann.  1536,  P.  ii.  c.  28.  Six  years  later,  in  1542,  Bishop 
Hermann  embraced  Lutheranism,  married,  and  in  1546  was  driven  from  his  see 
and  retired  to  his  county  of  Wied,  where  he  died  some  years  afterwards,  at  the  ripe 
age  of  80  years. 

2  Concil.  Salisbury.  XH.  (Dalham,  Concil,  Salisburgens.  pp.  296-322.) 

VOL.  II.  M 


178  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  clergy,  which  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  pressing 
question  of  the  hour.  The  archbishop  flatly  admitted  his 
impotence ;  until  the  Council  should  be  held  no  refor- 
mation was  possible.  Priestly  concubinage,  he  said,  could 
not  be  suppressed  without  great  scandals — in  fact,  per- 
suasion was  the  only  course  open,  for  the  clergy  of  Mainz, 
Treves,  and  Cologne  had  formed  so  strong  an  organisation 
for  mutual  defence  that  they  would  all  rise  in  resistance  if 
the  least  of  them  were  prosecuted.^ 

In  the  Council  of  Trent  itself,  the  Bishop  of  St.  Mark, 
in  opening  its  proceedings  with  a  speech,  6  January,  1546, 
drew  a  fearful  picture  of  the  corruption  of  the  world, 
which  had  reached  a  degree  that  posterity  might  possibly 
equal  but  not  exceed.  This  he  assured  the  assembled 
fathers  was  attributable  solely  to  the  wickedness  of  the 
pastors,  who  drew  their  flocks  with  them  into  the  abyss  of 
sin.  The  Lutheran  heresy  had  been  provoked  by  their 
own  guilt,  and  its  suppression  was  only  to  be  hoped  for  by 
their  own  reformation.^  At  a  later  session,  the  Bavarian 
orator,  August  Baumgartner,  told  the  assembled  fathers 
that  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  was  attributable  to 
the  scandalous  lives  of  the  clergy,  whose  excesses  he 
could  not  describe  without  oflending  the  chaste  ears  of  his 
auditory.  He  even  asserted  that  out  of  a  hundred  priests 
there  were  not  more  than  three  or  four  who  were  not 
either  married  or  concubinarians  ^ — a  statement  repeated 
in  a  consultation  on  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  reform 
drawn  up  in  1562  by  order  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand, 
with  the  addition  that  the  clergy  would  rather  see  the 
whole  structure  of  the  Church  destroyed  than  submit  to 
even  the  most  moderate  measure  of  reform.* 

1  Lammer,  Monumenta  Vaticana  Seeculi  XVI.  p.  412. 

2  Acta  Concil.  Trident.  (Martene  Ampl.  Coll.  VIII.  1063-9.) 

3  Sarpi,  Istor.  del  Concilio  Trident.  Lib.  vi.  (Ed.  Helmstad.  II.  140).— (?/.   Le 
Plat,  V.  337-8. 

4  Le  Plat,  V.  235. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  179 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  therefore  that  the  Christian 
world  had  long  and  earnestly  demanded  the  convocation 
of  an  (Ecumenic  council  which  should  represent  all  parties, 
should  have  full  powers  to  reconcile  all  differences,  and 
should  give  to  the  ancient  Church  the  purification  thus 
recognised  as  the  only  efficient  means  of  healing  the 
schism.  This  was  a  remedy  to  the  last  degree  distasteful 
to  the  Holy  See.  The  recollections  of  Constance  and 
Basle  were  full  of  pregnant  warnings  as  to  the  almost 
inevitable  antagonism  between  the  Vicegerent  of  Christ 
and  an  independent  representative  body,  believing  itself  to 
act  under  the  direct  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  claim- 
ing autocratic  supremacy  in  the  Church,  and  convoked  for 
the  special  purpose  of  reforming  abuses  the  most  of  which 
were  fruitful  sources  of  revenue  to  the  papal  court.  Such 
a  body,  if  assembled  in  Germany,  would  be  the  Pope's 
master ;  if  in  Italy,  his  tool ;  and  it  behoved  him  to  act 
warily  if  he  desired  to  meet  the  unanimous  demand  of 
Christendom  without  risking  the  sacrifice  of  his  most 
cherished  prerogatives.  Had  the  council  been  called  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Reformation,  it  could  hardly  have 
prevented  the  separation  of  the  Churches  ;  yet,  in  the 
temper  which  then  existed,  it  would  probably  have  effected 
as  thorough  a  purification  of  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment as  was  possible  in  so  corrupt  an  age.  By  delaying 
it  until  the  reactionary  movement  had  fairly  set  in,  the 
chances  of  troublesome  puritans  gaining  the  ascendency 
were  greatly  diminished,  and  the  papal  court  exposed  itself 
to  little  danger  when,  under  the  urgent  pressure  of  the 
Emperor,  it  at  length,  in  1536,  proposed  to  convoke  the 
long  desired  assembly  at  Mantua.^ 

A  place  so  completely  under  papal  influence  was  not 

1  Charles  was  careful  to  put  on  record  his  ceaseless  endeavours  with  Clement 
and  Paul  to  obtain  the  convocation  of  a  council  and  the  numberless  promises  made 
to  him,  for  the  evasion  of  which  reasons  were  always  found. — Commentaires  de 
Charles-Quint,  pp.  96-7  (Paris,  1862). 


180  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

likely  to  meet  the  views  of  the  opposition,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  both  the  Lutherans  and  Henry  VIII. 
refused  to  connect  themselves  with  such  a  council.  The 
latter,  indeed,  in  his  epistle  of  8  April,  1538,  to  Charles  V., 
expressed  himself  more  forcibly  than  elegantly  : — "  Nowe, 
if  he  [the  Pope]  calle  us  to  one  of  his  owne  townes,  we  be 
afraid  to  be  at  suche  an  hostes  table.  We  saye,  Better  to 
ryse  a  hungred,  then  to  goo  thense  with  oure  bellyes  fuUe."  ^ 
The  formality  of  its  opening,  17  May,  1537,  was  therefore 
an  empty  ceremony ;  its  transfer  to  Vicenza  was  little 
more;  and,  as  no  delegates  presented  themselves  up  to 
1  May,  1538,  it  was  prorogued  until  Easter  1539,  with 
the  promise  of  selecting  a  satisfactory  place  for  the  meet- 
ing. The  pressure  still  continued  until,  in  May  1542, 
Paul  finally  convoked  it  to  assemble  at  Trent.  The 
Reformers  were  no  better  satisfied  than  before.  They  had 
so  long  professed  their  readiness  to  submit  all  the  questions 
in  dispute  to  a  free  and  unbiassed  general  council,  that 
they  could  not  refuse  absolutely  to  countenance  it ;  but 
they  were  now  so  completely  established  as  a  separate 
organisation  that  they  had  little  to  hope  and  everything 
to  fear  from  the  appeal  which  they  had  themselves  pro- 
voked, and  nothing  which  Rome  could  now  offer  would 
have  brought  them  into  willing  attendance  upon  such  a 
body.^  They  accordingly  kept  aloof,  and  on  the  assembling 
of  the  council,  22  November,  1542,  its  numbers  were  so 
scanty  that  it  could  accomplish  nothing,  and  it  was  accord- 
ingly suspended  in  July  1543.  When  again  convoked, 
15  March,  1545,  but  twenty  bishops  and  a  few  ambassadors 
were  present ;  these  waited  with  what  patience  they  might 
command  for  accessions,  which  were  so  tardy  in  arriving 

1  Select.  Harl,  Miscell.,  London,  1793,  p.  137. 

2  The  temper  with  which  the  Protestants  now  viewed  the  council  is  well  expressed 
in  a  letter  from  Aonio  Paleario  written  in  1542  or  1545,  from  Eome  to  Luther, 
Melanchthon,  Bucer,  and  Calvin,  urging  them  by  no  means  to  sanction  the  assembly 
with  their  presence — (Published  by  Illgen,  4to,  Leipzig,  1833,) 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  181 

that  when  at  length  the  assembly  was  formally  opened,  on 
December  13,  the  number  had  increased  by  only  five. 
For  fifteen  months  the  council  continued  its  sessions, 
completely  under  the  control  of  the  Pope,  and  occupied  for 
the  most  part  with  formulating  as  Catholic  doctrine  the 
speculations  of  the  schoolmen,  which  thus  far  had  been 
generally  accepted  without  authoritative  confirmation  save 
incidentally  at  the  Council  of  Florence  in  1439.  As  these 
constituted  the  principal  dogmas  against  which  the  Refor- 
mation was  a  protest,  the  labours  of  the  fathers  were 
directed,  not  to  effect  a  reunion  of  the  Church,  but  to 
erect  an  impassable  barrier  between  Latin  and  Reformed 
Christianity. 

The  appeals  of  the  German  bishops  and  of  the  imperial 
ambassadors  for  some  effective  efforts  at  reform  became  at 
length  too  pressing,  and  to  evade  them,  in  March  1547, 
the  council  w^as  transferred  to  Bologna,  against  the  earnest 
protest  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Spaniards,  who  refused  to 
follow.^  At  Bologna  little  was  done  except  to  dispute 
over  the  sharp  protests  of  the  Emperor  and  to  adjourn  the 
council  from  time  to  time,  until,  after  falling  into  universal 
contempt,  it  was  suspended  in  1549.  Julius  III.,  who 
received  the  tiara  on  22  February,  1550,  signalised  his 
accession  by  convoking  it  again  at  Trent ;  and  there  it 
once  more  assembled  on  1  May,  1551. 

At  that  time  Lutheranism  in  Germany  was  under  the 
heel  of  Charles  V.  ;  Maurice  of  Saxony  was  ripening  his 
schemes  of  revolt,  and  concealing  them  with  the  dexterity  in 
which  he  was  unrivalled  ;  it  was  the  pohcy  of  both  that 
Protestant  theologians  should  take  part  in  the  discussions 
— of  the  one,  that  they  should  there  receive  their  sentence  ; 
of  the  other,  that  their  presence  might  assist  in  cloaking  his 

1  There  is  something  very  amusingly  suggestive  in  the  guarded  manner  in  which 
Charles  alludes  to  the  translation  of  the  Council :  "  0  ditto  Papa  Paulo  por  respeitos, 
que  o  moveram  (os  quaes  Deus  permitta  que  f  orsem  bons)  tratton  de  avocar  e  trans- 
ferir  a  Bolonha  " — (Commentaires,  p.  98.) 


182  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

designs.  The  flight  from  Innsbruck,  followed  by  the 
Transaction  of  Passau,  changed  the  face  of  affairs.  The 
I^utheran  doctors  rejoicingly  shook  the  dust  from  their 
feet  as  they  departed  from  Trent,  complaining  that  they 
had  been  treated  as  criminals  on  trial,  not  as  venerable 
members  of  a  body  assembled  to  decide  the  gravest 
questions  relating  to  this  life  and  that  to  come.  Other 
symptoms  of  revolt  among  the  Catholic  nations  were 
visible,  and  on  28  April,  1552,  the  council  again  broke 
up.^ 

Ten  years  passed  away ;  the  faithful  impatiently 
demanded  the  continuation  of  the  work  which  had  only 
been  commenced,  and  at  last  the  pressure  became  so  strong 
that  Pius  IV.  was  obliged  to  reassemble  the  council.^  His 
bull  bears  date  November  1560,  but  it  was  not  until 
twenty  years  after  Trent  had  witnessed  the  first  convoca- 
tion that  the  holy  men  again  gathered  within  its  walls, 
and  on  18  January,  1562,  the  council  resumed  its  oft- 
interrupted  sessions.  The  states  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession had  been  politely  invited  to  participate  in  the 
proceedings,  but  they  declined  with  the  scantest  of 
courtesy.^ 

During  these  long-protracted  preliminaries  there  were 
times  when  those  who  sincerely  desired  the  restoration  of 

1  That  the  complaints  of  the  Protestants  were  well  founded  is  evident  from  the 
secret  instructions  given,  20  February,  1552,  by  Julius  III.  to  the  Bishop  of  Monte 
Fiascone,  when  sending  him  as  legate  to  Charles  V.  He  was  to  explain  to  the 
Emperor  that  the  council  would  not  discuss  the  propositions  of  the  heretics 
"  nimirum  quod  judex  non  respondet  parti,  ne  ex  judice  se  partem  constituat "  ;  and 
he  is  further  to  explain  that  "  petentes  commune  concilium  hferetici  et  schismatici 
repellendi  sunt  a  conciliis  universalibus  .  .  .  nullo  modo  communicandum  esse 
concilium  cum  haereticis  et  schismaticis,  qui  sunt  extra  ecclesiam  .  .  .  sed  bene  pos- 
sunt  admitti,  ut  possint  interesse  pro  convincendis  etiam  pluries  eorum  erroribus." 
— Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  T.  IV.  p.  534-5. 

2  The  feeling  entertained  by  Pius  towards  the  council  is  shown  by  his  remark, 
in  December  1561,  to  M.  de  Lisle,  the  French  ambassador,  that  it  had  been  called 
simply  for  the  benefit  of  France  :  "  dautant  que  ledit  concile,  qui  est  de  peu  de 
besoin  pour  le  reste  de  la  chrestiente,  superflu  aux  Catholiques  et  non  desire  des 
papes  "  (Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  IV.  742). 

3  The  characteristic  correspondence  is  in  Le  Plat,  IV.  678-87. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  183 

the  Church  could  not  restrain  their  impatience.  In  1536, 
Paul  III.,  who  earnestly  admitted  the  necessity  of  some 
reform,  called  to  his  aid  nine  of  his  prelates  most  eminent 
for  virtue  and  piety,  as  a  commission  to  prepare  a  scheme 
for  internal  reformation.^  According  to  a  papal  historian, 
his  object  in  this  was  to  stop  the  mouths  of  the  heretics 
who  found  in  the  Roman  court  an  inexhaustible  subject 
of  declamation.^  For  two  years  the  commission  laboured 
at  its  work,  and  finally  produced  the  "  Consilium  de 
emendanda  ecclesia,"  to  which  allusion  has  been  made 
above. 

The  stern  and  unbending  Cardinal  CarafFa  was  head  of 
the  commission,  assisted  by  such  men  as  Contarini,  Sado- 
leto,  and  Reginald  Pole.  They  seem  to  have  been  inspired 
with  a  sincere  desire  to  root  out  the  chief  abuses  which 
gave  such  power  to  the  assaults  of  the  Protestants,  and  the 
result  of  their  labours  affords  us  a  picture  of  ecclesiastical 
corruptions  almost  as  damaging  to  the  Church  as  the 
complaints  of  the  Diet  of  Niirnberg.  As  regards  celibacy, 
they  were  disposed  to  make  no  concession ;  indeed,  they 
protest  against  the  facility  with  which  men  in  holy  orders 
were  able  to  purchase  from  the  Roman  Curia  dispensations 
to  marry.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  they  had  so 
little  confidence  in  the  possibility  of  purifying  the  con- 
ventual religious  Orders  that  they  actually  recommended 
their  abolition.  To  prevent  individual  cases  of  suffering 
they  proposed  that  the  convents  should  not  be  immediately 
abolished,  but  that  all  novices  should  be  discharged  and  no 

1  Charles  declares  that  at  the  commencement  of  his  pontificate  Paul  was 
earnestly  desirous  of  reforming  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  but  that  his  zeal  rapidly 
diminished,  and  he  followed  the  example  of  Clement  in  contenting  himself  with 
empty  promises. — "  Com  tudo  despois  com  o  tempo  aquellas  mostrase  ardor  primeiro 
se  foi  esfriando,  e  seguindo  os  passes  e  exemplo  do  Papa  Clemente,  com  boas 
palavras  prolongon  e  entretene  sempre  a  convo9iO  e  ajuntamento  do  concilio  '* 
(Commentaires,  p.  97). 

2  Per  serrar  la  bocca  agl'  heretici  i  quali  non  facevano  altro  in  voce  et  in  scritto 
che  dir  male  della  corte  di  Eoma. — Carraciolo,  Vita  di  Paolo  IH.  MS.  Br.  Mus. 
(Young,  Life  and  Times  of  Aonio  Paleario,  I.  261.) 


184  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

more  be  admitted,  thus  allowing  the  Orders  to  die  out 
gradually,  as  had  been  done  in  Saxony ;  and  meanwhile 
they  urged  that,  to  prevent  further  scandals,  all  nunneries 
should  be  removed  from  the  supervision  and  direction  of 
monks,  and  be  handed  over  to  the  ordinaries.^  The 
"  Consilium,"  in  fact,  was  so  candid  a  confession  of  most 
of  the  abuses  charged  upon  the  Church  by  the  reformers 
that  Luther  forthwith  translated  it  and  published  it  with 
a  commentary,  as  an  effective  pamphlet  in  aid  of  his  cause. 
CarafFa  himself,  after  he  had  attained  the  papacy,  under 
the  name  of  Paul  IV.,  quietly  put  his  own  work,  in  1559, 
into  the  Index  Librorum  Prohibitorum.^ 

However  earnest  Paul  may  have  been,  the  changes 
recommended  in  the  *'  Consilium "  attacked  too  many 
vested  interests  for  even  the  papal  power  to  give  it  effect. 
The  project  therefore  was  dropped,  and  only  resulted  in 
rendering  still  more  clamorous  the  call  for  a  reform  in  the 
head  and  members  of  the  Church.  As,  moreover,  it  had 
shown  the  powerlessness  of  the  papacy  to  overcome 
acknowledged  abuses,  the  only  hope  of  a  radical  change, 
such  as  was  needful,  was  seen  to  lie  in  the  untrammelled 
debates  of  a  great  assembly,  which  should  meet  as  a 
parliament  of  the  nations  ;  and  the  prospect  of  this  grew 
more  and  more  distant.  While  the  project  of  transferring 
the  council  from  Trent  was  being  matured,  it  occurred  to 
the  papal  court  that  possibly  the  objections  to  that  measure 
and  the  pressure  on  the  council  for  a  thorough  reformation 

1  Concilium  de  Emendanda  Ecclesia  (Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  II. 
601,  602). 

2  It  has  been  customarily  stated  by  Catholic  writers  that  this  proceeding  of 
Paul  IV.  was  directed  not  against  his  own  w^ork,  but  against  the  heretically  com- 
mentated editions,  but  in  the  Index  of  1559  the  entry  is  simply  "  Liber  inscrip. : 
Consilium  de  emendanda  ecclesia." — Reusch,  Die  Indices  Librorum  Prohibitorum, 
p.  194  (Tubingen.  1886). 

Father  Catalani,  in  his  work  on  the  Congregation  of  the  Index,  gives  a  detailed 
account  of  the  affair.  He  does  not  pretend  that  the  prohibition  of  the  Consilium 
was  directed  against  the  heretic  editions,  and  justifies  it  as  the  prudent  suppression 
of  matter  that  was  dangerous. — Catalani  de  Secretario  Congr.  Indicis,  pp.  45-50 
(Roma,  1751). 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  185 

might  be  averted  by  showing  a  disposition  on  the  part 
of  Rome  to  undertake  the  task  of  cleansing  the  Augean 
stable.  It  was  also  recognised  as  an  important  gain  if  the 
council  could  be  confined  to  the  harmless  task  of  defining 
questions  of  faith,  while  the  substantial  powers  involved  in 
reforming  the  corruptions  of  the  Church  could  be  claimed 
and  exercised  by  the  Pope.  Accordingly  Pius  III.  drew 
up  an  elaborate  bull  designed  to  limit  some  of  the  more 
flagrant  pecuniary  abuses  which  existed,  and  exhorting  the 
bishops  to  correct  the  morals  of  their  subordinates.  This 
was  sent  to  the  legates  at  Trent,  but  they  and  their  con- 
fidants unanimously  agreed  that,  in  the  existing  temper  of 
the  council,  the  promulgation  of  such  a  document  would  be 
in  the  highest  degree  imprudent.  It  was  accordingly  sup- 
pressed, and  only  saw  the  light  in  the  nineteenth  century.^ 
In  its  failure  the  Church  lost  but  little,  for  it  touched  the 
evils  of  the  time  with  a  tender  and  hesitating  hand,  and 
would  have  proved  utterly  inefficacious. 

At  length,  when  shortly  afterwards  the  unmannerly 
urgency  of  the  Germans,  clamouring  for  decided  measures  of 
reform,  was  met  by  the  translation  of  the  council  to  Bologna 
in  1547,  and  men  despaired  of  further  results  from  it, 
Charles  V.  resolved  to  take  the  matter  into  his  own  hands, 
and  to  effect,  for  his  own  dominions  at  least,  that  which 
had  been  vainly  expected  of  the  council  for  Christendom. 
The  "  Interim,"  which  has  already  been  alluded  to,  was 
intended  to  answer  this  purpose,  as  far  as  Lutheranism  was 
concerned,  in  healing  the  breach  of  religion.  The  other 
great  object  of  the  council,  the  restoration  of  the  neglected 
discipline  of  the  Church,  he  attempted  to  effect  by  means 
of  the  secular  authority  of  the  empire  acting  on  the  regular 
machinery  of  the  Teutonic  ecclesiastical  estabhshment. 
How  utterly  neglected  that  discipline  had  become  is 
inferable  from  an  expression  in  the  important  and  carefully 

1  Published  by  Clausen,  Copenhagen,  1829, 


186  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

drawn  project  which  had  been  laid  by  Charles  before  the 
Diet  of  Ratisbon  in  1541,  to  the  effect  that  if  the  canon 
requiring  cehbacy  was  to  be  enforced,  it  would  be  necessary 
also  to  revive  those  canons  which  punished  incontinence, 
thus  admitting  that  there  existed  no  check  whatever  upon 
either  priestly  marriage  or  immorality.^ 

To  accompKsh  this  desirable  revival  of  discipline  he 
accordingly  caused  the  adoption  by  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
of  a  code  of  reformation,  well  adapted,  if  enforced,  to 
restore  the  long-forgotten  purity  of  the  Church,  while  at 
the  same  time  it  acknowledged  that  the  degeneracy  of  the 
times  rendered  impossible  the  resuscitation  of  the  ancient 
canons  in  their  strictness.  Thus,  after  reciting  the  canon 
of  Neoc^esarea  (see  Vol  I.),  it  adds,  that  as  such  severity 
was  now  impracticable,  those  in  holy  orders  convicted  of 
impurity  should  be  separated  from  their  concubines,  and 
visited  with  suspension  from  function  and  benefice  pro- 
portioned to  the  gra\dty  of  the  offence.  A  repetition  of 
the  fault  was  punishable  with  increased  severity,  and 
incorrigible  sinners  who  were  found  to  be  incapable  of 
reformation  were  finally  to  be  deprived  of  their  benefices. 
As  concubines  were  threatened  with  immediate  excommuni- 
cation, it  is  evident  that  a  severity  was  designed  towards 
them  which  was  not  ventured  on  with  respect  to  their  more 
guilty  partners.  Relaxation  of  the  rules  is  also  observable 
in  the  section  which,  despite  the  Nicene  canon,  permitted 
the  residence  of  women  over  forty  years  of  age,  whose 
character  and  conduct  relieved  them  from  suspicion.^  The 
imperative  injunctions  of  chastity  laid  upon  the  regular 
clergy,  canons,  and  nuns  show  not  only  the  determination 
to  remove  the  prevailing  scandals,  but  also  the  magnitude 
and  extent  of  the  evil.^ 

Nor  was  this  all.     Local  councils  were  ordered  for  the 

1  Lib.  ad  Eation.  Concord,  ineundam  Art.  xxii  §  13  (Goldast.  II.  199). 

2  Formul.  Keformat.  cap.  xvii.  §  4  (Goldast  II.  335). 

3  Ibid.  cap.  III.  §  1,  cap.  v.  §§  7,  9. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  187 

purpose  of  embodying  these  decrees  in  their  statutes  and 
of  carrying  out  with  energy  the  reformation  so  earnestly 
desired.  Thus,  in  November  1548,  about  five  months  after 
the  diet,  a  synod  assembled  at  Augsburg,  which  inveighed 
bitterly  against  the  unclerical  dress  and  pomp  of  the  clergy, 
their  habits  of  drunkenness,  gluttony,  licentiousness,  tavern- 
lounging,  and  general  disregard  of  discipline  ;  and  adopted 
a  canon  embracing  the  regulations  enacted  by  the  Emperor.  ^ 
The  Archbishop  of  Treves  did  not  wait  for  his  synod,  but 
issued,  October  30th,  a  mandate  especially  directed  against 
concubinary  priests,  in  which  he  announced  his  intention 
of  carrying  out  the  reform  commanded  by  Charles.  He 
could  find  no  reason  more  self-evident  for  the  dislike  and 
contempt  felt  by  the  people  for  so  many  of  the  clergy  than 
the  immorality  of  their  lives,  differing  little,  except  in 
legality,  from  open  marriage.  "  This  vice,  existing  every- 
where throughout  our  diocese,  in  consequence  of  the 
licence  of  the  times  and  the  neglect  of  the  officials,  we 
must  eradicate.  Therefore  all  of  you,  of  what  grade 
soever,  shall  dismiss  your  concubines  within  nine  days, 
removing  them  beyond  the  bounds  of  your  parishes,  and 
be  no  longer  seen  to  associate  with  loose  and  wanton 
women.  Those  who  neglect  this  order  shall  be  suspended 
from  office  and  benefice,  their  concubines  shall  be  excom- 
municated, and  they  themselves  be  brought  before  our 
synod  to  be  presently  held.''  ^ 

These  were  brave  words,  but  when  some  three  weeks 
later  the  synod  had  assembled,  and  the  malefactors 
perchance  brought  before  it,  the  good  bishop  found 
apparently  that  his  flock  was  not  disposed  to  submit 
quietly  to  the  curtailment  of  privileges  which  had  almost 
become  imprescriptible.  His  tone  accordingly  was  softened, 
for  though  he  deprecated  their  immorality  more  strongly 

1  Synod.  Augustan,  ann.  1548  c.  10. 

2  Synod.  Trevirens.  ann.  1548. 


188  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

than  ever,  and  asserted  his  intention  of  enforcing  his  mandate, 
he  condescended  to  argue  at  much  length  on  the  propriety 
of  chastity,  and  even  descended  to  entreaty,  beseeching 
them  to  preserve  the  purity  so  essential  to  the  character 
of  the  Church,  the  absence  of  which  had  drawn  upon  the 
clergy  an  odium  which  could  scarce  be  described  in  words.  ^ 
How  slender  was  his  success  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  the  next  year  he  felt  it  necessary  to  hold  another 
synod,  in  which  he  renewed  and  confirmed  the  proceedings 
of  the  former  one,  and  endeavoured  to  reduce  the  monks 
and  nuns  of  his  diocese  into  some  kind  of  subjection  to  the 
rules  of  discipline.^ 

The  Archbishop  of  Cologne  was  as  energetic  as  his 
brother  of  Treves,  with  about  equal  success.  On  Septem- 
ber 1st  he  issued  the  Augsburg  Formula  of  Reformation, 
with  a  call  for  a  synod  to  be  held  on  October  2nd.  At  the 
same  time  he  manifested  his  sense  of  the  primary  import- 
ance of  correcting  clerical  immorality  by  promulgating  a 
special  mandate  respecting  concubinage.  He  asserted  this 
to  be  the  chief  cause  of  the  contempt  popularly  felt  for  the 
Church,^  and  he  ordered  all  ecclesiastics  to  send  their 
women  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  parishes  within  nine 
days,  under  the  penalties  provided  in  the  imperial  decree. 
The  synod  was  held  at  the  time  indicated,  and,  though  it 
adopted  no  regular  canons,  it  accepted  the  Augsburg 
Formula  and  the  mandate  of  the  archbishop,  with  a  trifling 
alteration.* 

This  proved  utterly  ineffectual,  for  in  March  1549  he 
assembled  a  provincial  council,  in  which  he  deplored 
the  licence  of  the  times,  which  rendered  the  strictness  of 


1  Synod.  Trevirens.  ann.  1548  cap.  ii. 

2  Synod.  Trevirens.  II.  ann.  1549  cap.  xi.,  xix. 

8  Mandat.  de  abjic.  Concub.  (Hartzheim  VI.  353.) 

4  Ibid.  p.  358.  A  diocesan  synod  was  also  held  at  Liege,  November  15, 
which  gave  offending  clerks  fifteen  days  to  part  with  their  concubines  (Ibid 
VI.  395). 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  189 

the  ancient  canons  unadvisable,  and  he  announced  that  it 
had  been  decided  to  proceed  gradually  with  the  intended 
reforms.  As  to  the  morals  of  the  clergy,  he  stated  that 
everywhere  the  cure  of  souls  was  delegated  to  improper 
persons,  many  of  them  living  in  the  foulness  of  concubinage, 
in  perpetual  drunkenness,  and  in  other  infamous  vices, 
encouraged  by  the  negligence  of  bishops  and  the  thirst 
of  archdeacons  for  unhallowed  gains.  The  unions  of  those 
who,  infected  by  the  new  heresies,  did  not  hesitate  to  enter 
into  matrimony,  were  of  course  pronounced  illicit  and 
impious,  their  offspring  illegitimate,  and  the  parents 
anathematised ;  but  for  those  who  remained  in  the  Church, 
yet  submitted  to  no  restraint  upon  their  passions,  a  more 
merciful  spirit  was  shown,  for  the  punishments  ordered  by 
the  Diet  of  Augsburg  were  somewhat  lightened  in  their 
favour.  The  extreme  licence  of  the  period  may  be  under- 
stood from  another  canon  directed  against  the  comedians, 
who,  not  content  with  the  ordinary  theatres,  were  in  the 
habit  of  visiting  the  nunneries,  where  their  profane  plays 
and  amatory  acting  excited  to  unholy  desires  the  virgins 
dedicated  to  God.^  No  one  acquainted  with  the  coarse- 
ness of  the  drama  of  that  rude  age  can  doubt  the  propriety 
of  the  archbishop's  reproof.  Supplementary  synods  were 
also  held,  in  October  1549  and  February  1550,  to  perfect 
the  details  of  a  very  thorough  inquisitorial  visitation  of 
the  whole  province. 

This  visitation,  so  pompously  heralded,  did  not  take 
place.  At  a  synod  held  in  October  1550  the  archbishop 
made  sundry  lame  excuses  for  its  postponement.  Another 
synod  was  assembled  in  February  1551,  at  which  we  hear 
nothing  more  of  it ;  but  the  prelates  of  the  diocese  were 
requested  to  collect  such  ancient  and  forgotten  canons 
as  they  could  find,  which  might  be  deemed  advantageous 

1  Concil.  Coloniens.  ann.  1549  cap.  Quibiig  possint. — Cap.  de  Monach.  conjugat. 
Cap.  de  Concub.  Monach, — Cap.  Comoedi9,s, 


190  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

in  the  future  ;  ^  and  with  this  the  work  of  reformation  in 
the  province  of  Cologne  appears  to  end. 

In  1549,  Ernest,  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  assembled  the 
synod  of  his  extensive  province,  but  when  his  clergy- 
understood  that  it  was  intended  to  confirm  the  reformatory 
edict  of  the  Emperor,  they  had  the  audacity  to  present  a 
petition  praying  that  the  clause  ordering  the  removal  of 
their  concubines  should  not  be  enforced.  They  declared 
that  the  attempt  to  do  so  would  be  attended  with  serious 
difficulty,  and  that  it  would  lead  to  greater  evils  than  it 
sought  to  remove,  and  they  asked  that  the  consideration 
of  the  matter  should  be  referred  to  the  general  council, 
whose  reassembling  was  no  longer  dreaded.  The  synod, 
with  a  proper  sense  of  its  dignity,  refused  to  receive  the 
shameless  petition,  and  listened  rather  to  those  of  its 
members  who  complained  of  the  practice  of  the  officials  in 
receiving  bribes  for  permitting  illicit  indulgences,  and  the 
representations  of  Duke  AVilliam,  of  Bavaria,  who  asserted 
that  the  Lutheran  heresy  had  been  caused  by  the  scan- 
dalous corruption  of  the  Church.  A  canon  was  accord- 
ingly adopted  which  renewed  the  regulations  of  Basle  and 
ordered  the  speedy  removal  of  all  recognised  and  notorious 
concubines.^ 

In  October  and  November  1548,  and  April  1549,  the 
Bishops  of  Paderborn,  Wurzburg,  and  Strassburg  held 
synods  which  adopted  the  reformatory  measures  decreed  at 
Augsburg.^  These  were  preparatory  to  the  metropolitan 
synod  of  Mainz,  assembled  in  May  1549,  which  com- 
manded that  no   one   should  be   thereafter  admitted  to 

1  Hartzheim  VI.  767,  781. 

2  Dalham;  Concil.  Salisburg.  pp.  328,  337  (Concil.  Salisburg.  XLIV.  can.  vii.). 

3  Gropp,  Collect.  Script.  Wirceburg.  I.  311.— Hartzheim  VI.  359,  417.  In  the 
epistle  convoking  his  council,  Bishop  Melchior  of  Wurzburg  alluded  passionately  to 
the  evils  everywhere  existing:  "Videtis   percussum  pastorem  ;    videtis  oves   dis- 

persas  ;  videtis  impudentem  peccandi  licentiam  ;  videtis  adversus  pietatem  audaciam 
turn  loquendi  turn  disputandi  impiissimam,  et  indies  scelerata  gliscere  schismata" 
(Ibid.  X.  763). 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  191 

orders  without  a  preliminary  examination  by  his  bishop  on 
the  subject  of  doctrine,  and  testimonials  from  the  people 
as  to  purity  of  character.  After  thus  wisely  providing  for 
the  future,  attention  was  directed  to  the  present.  It  was 
declared  intolerable  that,  in  spite  of  the  reiterated  prohibi- 
tions of  the  fathers  and  councils,  concubines  should  be 
universally  kept ;  the  Basilian  canon  was  therefore  revived, 
and  its  enforcement  strictly  enjoined  on  the  ordinaries, 
who  were  forbidden  in  any  manner  to  connive  at  these 
disorders  for  the  sake  of  profit.^ 

The  pressure  was  continued,  for  when  Cambrai,  which 
owed  temporal  obedience  to  the  Emperor,  while  ecclesi- 
astically it  formed  part  of  the  province  of  Rheims,  neg- 
lected to  adopt  the  Formula  of  Augsburg  for  two  years, 
it  was  not  allowed  to  escape.  In  October  1550  a  synod 
was  finally  assembled  there  under  stringent  orders  from 
Charles,  and  the  Formula  was  published,  together  with  an 
elaborate  series  of  canons  which  would  have  been  well 
adapted  to  correct  abuses  that  were  not  incorrigible.^ 

Charles  had  thus  exerted  all  the  resources  of  his  imperial 
supremacy,  and,  whether  willingly  or  not,  the  powerful 
prelates  who  ruled  the  German  Church  had  united  in 
carrying  out  his  views.  The  temporal  and  spiritual 
authorities  had  thus  been  concentrated  upon  the  vices  of 
the  Church,  and  if  its  reformation  had  been  possible,  in 
the  existing  condition  of  its  organisation,  some  improve- 
ment must  have  resulted  from  these  combined  and  per- 
sistent efforts.  How  nugatory  were  the  results  may  be 
guessed  from  a  memorial  presented  in  1558,  by  the 
University  of  Louvain,  to  Philip  II.,  exhorting  him  to 
grant  no  toleration  to  the  heretics,  but  at  the  same  time 
urging  upon  him  the  absolute  necessity  of  some  compre- 

1  Concil.  Mogunt.  ann.  1549  c.  82,  102. 

2  Synod.  Camerac.  ann.  1550  (Hartzheim  VI,  654), 


192  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

hensive  system  of  reform  to  purify  the  Church,  all  the 
orders  of  which  were  given  over  utterly  to  the  twin  vices 
of  avarice  and  licentiousness.^  The  same  testimony  is 
borne  by  a  consultation  drawn  up  in  1562  by  order  of  the 
Emperor  Ferdinand.  After  alluding  to  the  efforts  at 
reform  made  by  Paul  III.  and  Charles  V.,  it  declares  that 
their  only  result  has  been  to  make  the  condition  of  clerical 
morality  worse  than  before,  exciting  the  hatred  of  the 
people  for  their  priests  to  an  incredible  pitch,  and  doing 
more  to  inflame  the  ardour  of  heresy  than  all  the  teaching 
of  Christian  truth  can  do  to  restrain  it.^ 

As  the  failure  of  all  efforts  to  improve  clerical  morality 
under  the  existing  rules  of  discipline  was  thus  found  to  be 
complete,  there  arose  in  the  minds  of  thinking  men  a 
conviction,  such  as  Erasmus  had  already  declared,  that, 
since  all  other  measures  had  proved  fruitless,  the  only 
mode  of  securing  a  virtuous  clergy  was  to  remove  the 
prohibition  of  marriage.  At  the  Polish  Diet  of  1552 
petitions  praying  for  sacerdotal  matrimony  were  presented, 
and,  though  they  failed  in  their  object,  the  Diet  of  1556 
authorised  King  Sigismund  Augustus  to  address  Paul  IV. 
with  a  request,  in  the  name  of  the  nation,  to  grant  it  as 
well  as  communion  in  both  elements.^ 

The  dissension  thus  existing  within  the  Church  is 
exhibited  in  a  volume  published  in  1558  by  Stanislas 
Hosius,  Bishop  of  Ermeland,  earnestly  arguing  against 
communion  in  both  elements,  clerical  marriage,  and  the 
use  of  the  vulgar  tongue  in  worship.  As  regards  celibacy, 
he  assumes  that  it  had  been  maintained  unbrokenly  for 

1  LePlat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  IV.  611. 

2  Consult.  Imp.  Ferdinand  (Le  Plat,  V.  235).  It  would  be  impossible  to  conceive 
a  darker  picture  of  clerical  life  than  is  given  in  this  document.  "  Ejici  autem  nunc 
clerum,  conculcari  pedibu»,  pro  nihilo  haberi  et  tanquam  publicum  offendiculum 
devoveri  diris  aut  paulo  plus,  tam  verum  est  quam  minime  falsum,  cleri  mores  in- 
sulsos  esse,  vanos  esse,  turpes  esse,  seque  ecclesige  perniciosos  ac  Deo  execrabiles  "— 
Ibid.  p.  237. 

3  Krasinski,  Reformation  in  Poland,  I.  190,  3S5, 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  193 

fifteen  hundred  years,  and  was  not  now  to  be  abandoned 
to  gratify  a  few  disorderly  monks.  The  example  of  the 
Greek  Church  he  meets  by  pointing  out  that  the  Greeks 
were  suffered  to  be  persecuted  by  the  Turks  ;  the  argument 
that  marriage  would  purify  the  Church  he  silences  with 
the  observation  that  many  married  men  are  adulterers ; 
and  he  holds  it  to  be  a  doubting  of  God  to  suppose  that 
the  gift  of  continence  would  be  denied  to  those  who 
properly  seek  it.^  In  spite  of  the  logic  of  polemics  such 
as  Hosius,  the  opinions  of  the  innovators  continued  to  gain 
ground,  until  at  length  they  won  even  the  highest  digni- 
taries of  the  empire,  and  in  1560  the  Emperor  Ferdinand 
himself  undertook  their  advocacy  with  the  Pope,  after 
having  for  some  years  countenanced  the  practice  within 
his  own  territories. 

Almost  immediately  on  the  consecration  of  Pius  IV,,  in 
addressing  to  him  an  argument  for  the  reassembling  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  or  the  convocation  of  a  new  council, 
Ferdinand  seized  the  opportunity  to  ask  especially  for  the 
communication  of  the  cup  to  the  laity,  and  permission  for 
the  clergy  to  marry.  The  latter  of  these  points  he  con- 
sidered to  be  the  only  remedy  for  the  fearful  immorality 
of  the  Church,  for,  though  all  flesh  was  corrupt,  the 
corruption  of  the  priesthood  surpassed  that  of  all  other 
men.^     That  he  had  not  waited  for  the  papal  assent  to 

1  Hosii  Dialogus  de  ea  num  Calicem  Laicis  et  Uxores  Sacerdotibus  permitti,  etc. 
Dilingaj,  3558. 

2  Pallavicini,  Storia  del  Concil.  di  Trento,  Lib.  xiv.  c.  13. 

Twelve  years  before,  his  uncle,  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  in  promulgating  the  Augs- 
burg formula  of  reformation,  had  made  a  similar  assertion  :  >;"  Preterquam  quod  hoc 
infcelici  sseculo,  quo  omnis  caro  corrupit  viam  suam,  praesertimque  ordo  clericorum 
et  ecclesiasticorum,  nimium  degenerant,  plus  quam  unquam  est  necessaria  " — Concil. 
Leodiens.  ann.  1548  (Hartzheim  VI.  392).  The  increased  emphasis  of  Ferdinand  is  a 
measure  of  the  success  which  had  attended  the  reformatory  movements  of  Charles  V. 
during  the  interval. 

In  such  a  condition  of  ecclesiastical  morality  it  is  no  wonder  that  even  in 
orthodox  Vienna  the  most  popular  theme  on  which  preachers  could  expatiate  was 
the  corruption  of  the  Church. — See  the  Emperor  Ferdinand's  secret  instructions 
to  his  envoy  in  Rome,  March  6,  1560,  in  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident. 
IV.  622. 

VOL.  II.  N 


194  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

favour  these  innovations  within  his  own  dominions  is 
shown  by  his  statement  that  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg 
had  recently,  in  a  synod,  earnestly  called  upon  him  to  put 
a  stop  to  the  progress  which  they  were  making,  but,  he 
added,  his  long  experience  in  such  matters  had  shown  him 
what  was  possible  and  what  impossible,  and  he  had 
accordingly  set  forth  the  difficulties  of  the  task  in  a  paper 
addressed  to  the  archbishop,  a  copy  of  which  he  enclosed 
to  the  Pope.^ 

The  nuncio  Commendone,  in  transmitting  this  document 
to  Rome,  accompanied  it  with  a  letter  from  the  Cardinal 
Bishop  of  Augsburg,  recommending  the  postponement 
of  the  question  until  the  reassembling  of  the  Council  of 
Trent,  and,  as  Pius  answered  it  in  this  sense,  no  further 
action  was  taken,  though  Ferdinand  made  haste  to  repeat 
his  demand,  in  view  of  the  impatience  of  both  clergy  and 
people,  who  could  ill  brook  the  delays  inseparable  from 
the  discussion  of  the  subject  in  so  unwieldy  a  body.^ 
When  Commendone,  moreover,  passed  through  Cleves  on 
his  way  to  the  council,  then  about  to  be  reopened,  the 
Duke  of  Cleves  earnestly  besought  him  to  lend  his  in- 
fluence to  the  accomplishment  of  the  measure,  urging  as  a 
reason  that  in  the  whole  of  his  dominions — and  he  was 
sovereign  of  three  populous  duchies — there  could  not  be 
found  five  priests  who  did  not  keep  concubines.  In  order 
to  secure  his  favour  for  the  approaching  council,  Com- 
mendone did  not  scruple  to  hold  out  expectations  that  the 
concessions  would  be  granted.^ 

During  the  progress  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  fate 
of  the  Catholic  Church  of  Germany  had  sometimes  seemed 

1  Pallavicini,  loc.  cit.  That  the  Catholic  Church  of  Germany  had  become  widely- 
infected  with  this  Lutheran  heresy  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1548  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Cologne  had  found  it  necessary  to  prohibit  throughout  his  province  all 
marriages  of  priests,  monks,  and  nuns,  and  had  pronounced  illegitimate  the  offspring 
of  such  unions. — Hartzheim  VI.  357. 

2  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  IV.  644. 

3  Pallavicini,  Lib.  XV.  c.  5. — The  duke,  though  no  bigot,  was  a  good  Catholic. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  195 

to  hang  in  the  balance,  no  princes  had  earned  a  larger  title 
to  the  gratitude  of  Rome  than  the  powerful  Dukes  of 
Bavaria,  who  were  the  leaders  of  the  reaction.     Yet  now 
the   influence   of  that   important   region   was  thrown  in 
favour  of  the  abrogation  of  celibacy,  and  Duke  Albert  was 
the  first  who  boldly  brought  the  matter  before  the  council 
by   a   demand   for   ecclesiastical   marriage,   presented   on 
27  June,  1562.     To  this  the  evasive  answer  was  returned 
that  the  council  would  take  such  action  as  would  be  found 
to  redound  to  the  glory  of  God  and  to  the  benefit  of  the 
Church.^     During  the  same  year  the  Emperor  Ferdinand 
also  repeatedly  urged  its  consideration.     A  plan  for  the 
reform  of  the  Church  presented  by  his  delegates  not  only 
called  attention  to  the  necessity  of  purifying  the  morals  of 
the  regular  and  secular  clergy,  but  demanded  that,  to  some 
nations  at  least,  the  privilege  of  sacerdotal  marriage  should 
be  conceded.^     Another  elaborate  paper  argued  the  ques- 
tion with  much  temperate  force,  and  declared  that  many 
priests  had  already  married  for  the  purpose  of  escaping  the 
corruptions  of  celibacy,  while  studiously  preserving  them- 
selves from  the  errors  of  Lutheranism.     Out  of  a  hundred 
parish  priests  scarcely  one  could  be  found  who  was  not 
either  openly  or  secretly  married,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
tolerate  them  to   prevent   the   utter    destruction   of  the 
Church.3 

A  third  document  is  extant,  without  date,  which  was 
laid  before  the  cardinals  of  the  papal  court  by  the  Emperor, 
in  which  the  question  was  argued  at  considerable  length 
and  with  much  vehemence.  After  asserting  that,  from  the 
records  of  the  primitive  Church,  celibacy  w^as  not  then 
recognised  as  imperative,  it  proceeded  to  declare  that  if 

1  Pallavicini,  Lib.  XVII.  c.  4.  At  the  request  of  Duke  Albert,  the  question  was 
also  mooted  at  the  provincial  synod  of  Salzburg,  held  in  1562  for  the  purpose  of 
sending  delegates  to  Trent. — Hartzheim  VII.  230. 

2  Articuli  de  Reform.  Eccles.  No.  14,  15, 18.— Goldast.  II.  376. 

3  Consultat.  Imp.  Ferdinandi  (Le  Plat,  V.  249,  252). 


196  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

marriage  ever  were  permissible,  the  present  carnal  and 
licentious  age  rendered  it  a  necessity,  for  not  one  Catholic 
priest  out  of  fifty  could  be  found  who  lived  chastely.  All 
were  asserted  to  be  notoriously  dissolute,  scandalising  the 
people  and  inflicting  great  damage  on  the  Church.  The 
request  was  made  not  so  much  to  satisfy  the  priests  who 
desired  marriage  as  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the  laity,  for 
many  patrons  of  livings  refused  presentation  to  all  but 
married  men.  However  preferable  a  single  life  might  be 
for  the  clergy,  it  therefore  was  thought  better  to  give  it  up 
than  to  leave  open  the  door  to  the  scandalous  impurities 
traceable  to  celibacy.  Another  weighty  reason  was  alleged 
in  the  great  scarcity  of  priests,  caused  alone  by  the  pro- 
hibition of  marriage,  in  proof  of  which  it  was  urged  that 
the  Catholic  schools  of  divinity  were  all  but  empty  and  the 
episcopal  function  of  ordination  nearly  disused,  while  the 
Lutheran  colleges  were  crowded  by  those  who  subsequently 
obtained  admission  into  the  true  Church,  where  they  worked 
incredible  mischief.  The  argument  that  the  temporal 
possessions  of  the  Church  would  be  imperilled  by  sacerdotal 
matrimony  was  met  by  indignantly  denouncing  the  worldly 
wisdom  which  would  protect  such  perishable  interests  at 
the  cost  of  innumerable  souls  sacrificed  by  the  existing 
condition  of  affairs.  For  these  and  other  reasons  it  asked 
that  marriage  should  in  future  be  allowed  to  all  the  priest- 
hood, whether  already  in  orders  or  to  be  subsequently 
admitted  :  that  married  men  of  good  character  and  educa- 
tion should  be  ordained  to  supply  the  want  of  pastors  :  that 
those  who  had  contracted  matrimony,  in  contravention  of  the 
canons,  should  no  longer  be  ejected,  seeing  that  it  was  most 
absurd  to  turn  out  men  because  they  were  married,  while 
retaining  notorious  concubinarians,  and  that  if,  with  equal 
justice,  both  classes  should  be  dismissed,  the  people  would 
be  left  almost,  if  not  entirely,  destitute  of  spiritual  guides. 
The  paper  concluded  by  asserting  that  if  the  prayer  be 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  197 

granted  the  clergy  could  be  retained  in  the  Church  and  in 
the  faith,  to  the  great  benefit  of  their  flocks,  and  that  the 
scandal  of  promiscuous  licentiousness,  wliich  had  involved 
the  Church  in  so  much  disgrace,  would  be  removed/ 

This  vivid  sketch  of  the  condition  of  the  church,  with 
the  evils  which  were  everywhere  felt,  and  the  remedies 
which  suggested  themselves  to  clear-sighted  and  im- 
partial men,  was  as  ineffectual  as  other  similar  efforts  had 
been,  for  to  all  such  arguments  the  Council  of  Trent  was 
deaf  France,  too,  was  more  than  willing  to  see  celibacy 
abolished.  M.  de  Lanssac,  the  French  ambassador,  was 
ordered  to  place  himself  in  close  relations  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Emperor,  and  to  unite  with  them  in 
seeking  the  relaxation  of  all  regulations  which  tended  to 
prevent  the  reunion  of  the  Protestants,  while  the  Gallican 
bishops  were  commanded  to  show  themselves  reasonable 
and  yielding  in  such  matters :  and  when  Lanssac  reported 
the  demands  of  the  Emperor,  comprehending  clerical  mar- 
riage among  other  changes,  Charles  IX.  assented  to  them 
in  terms  of  warm  commendation.^  The  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  moreover,  was  instructed  to  urge  some  measures 
efficient  to  reform  the  licentious  lives  of  the  ecclesiastics, 
which  spread  corruption  and  debauchery  among  the  people, 
while  permission  for  priestly  marriage  was  recommended 
as  one  of  the  means  essential  to  recall  the  heretics  to  the 
bosom  of  the  true  Church.^  As  a  compromise,  however, 
the  French  prelates  contented  themselves  with  suggesting 
that  none  but  elderly  men  should  be  eligible  to  the  priest- 
hood, and  that  the  testimony  of  the  people  in  favour  of 

1  Considerat.  Csesar.  Majest.  sup.  Matrim.  Sacerd.  Nos.  6,  7,  8,  10,  11,  12,  13,  15, 
16, 17  (Goldast.  II.  382-3— Le  Plat,  VI.  315). 

The  scarcity  of  priests  in  Germany,  with  resulting  neglect  of  religion,  was  no 
new  thing,  and  had  been  strongly  represented  in  1542  by  the  nuncio  Morone.  He 
attributed  it  to  the  popular  contempt  felt  for  ecclesiastics,  and  said  that,  although 
some  bishops  maintained  training  seminaries,  the  scholars,  when  they  acquired  a 
little  learning,  mostly  became  Lutherans. — Lammer,  Monumentt.  Vaticana  p.  398. 

2  Le  Plat,  V.  154,'  208,  211. 

3  Ibid.  562-3. 


198  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

their  moral  character  should  be  a  prerequisite  to  ordination, 
in  hopes  that  by  such  means  the  necessary  purification  of 
the  clergy  at  least  could  be  effected,  while  the  sharpest 
measures  should  be  adopted  to  punish  their  licentiousness.^ 

All  this  was  useless,  and,  in  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  ima- 
gine how  any  one  could  expect  a  reform  of  this  nature 
from  a  body  composed  of  prelates  all  of  whom  were  obliged 
by  Pius  IV.,  in  a  decree  of  4  September,  1560,  to  solemnly 
swear  to  a  profession  of  faith  containing  a  specific  declara- 
tion that  the  vows  of  chastity  inferred  on  entering  into 
holy  orders,  or  assumed  in  embracing  monastic  life,  were 
to  be  strictly  observed  and  enforced.^  The  question  thus 
was  prejudged,  and  the  council  was  more  likely  to  listen  to 
Bartholomew  a  Martyribus,  the  Archbishop  of  Bracara, 
who  laid  before  them  a  paper  containing  the  points  which, 
in  his  opinion,  required  reformation,  among  which  were  the 
revival  of  the  canons  respecting  concubinary  bishops  and 
priests,  the  prohibition  of  sons  succeeding  to  their  fathers' 
benefices,  and  the  excommunication  of  confessors  who  de- 
bauched their  fair  penitents^ — though  when  the  sturdy 
archbishop  in  a  stormy  debate  declared  that  "  illustrissimi 
cardinales  egent  illustrissima  reformatione,"  he  doubtless 
was  held  to  be  a  most  uncourtly  and  impracticable  re- 
former. 

Despite  all  the  urgency  from  without,  it  was  not  until 
8  February,  1563,  after  the  council  had  been  in  session  for 
more  than  a  year,  that  the  theologians  at  last  arranged  for 
disputation  the  articles  on  matrimony,  and  laid  them  before 
the  council  for  discussion.     They  were  divided  into  five 

1  Capi  dati  da'  Frances!  cap.  1. — (Baluz.  et  Mansi  IV.  374)  Comp.  Zaccaria, 
pp.  133-4. 

2  Votum  castitatis  sacris  ordinibus  conjunctum,  atque  vota  quae  in  probatis 
religionibus  emittuntur,  et  alia  quaecunque  rite  suscepta,  fideliter  sunt  observanda. — 
Le  Plat,  IV.  649. 

3  Ibid.  IV.  756,  760,  761,  765. — The  182  articles  which,  according  to  Archbishop 
Bartholomew,  required  reform  in  the  internal  discipline  of  the  Church  form  as 
damaging  a  commentary  upon  its  condition  as  any  of  the  attacks  of  the  Protestants. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  199 

classes,  of  which  the  fourth  was  devoted  to  the  bearing  of 
the  subject  on  the  clergy,  consisting  of  two  propositions — 
tfe  fifth  and  sixth — artfully  drawn  up  to  justify  rejection, 
while  preserving  the  appearance  of  presenting  the  subject 
for  deliberation — That  matrimony  was  preferable  to  celi- 
bac).,  and  that  God  bestowed  grace  on  the  married  rather 
than  on  the  single. — That  the  priests  of  the  Western 
Church  could  lawfully  contract  marriage,  notwithstanding 
the  canons  ;  that  to  deny  this  was  to  condemn  matrimony, 
and  that  all  were  at  liberty  to  marry  who  did  not  feel 
themselves  graced  with  the  gift  of  chastity.^ 

The  disputation  on  the  various  questions  connected 
"v^ith  matrimony  commenced  the  next  day,  and  was  con- 
tinued at  intervals  for  six  months.  Meanwhile  there  were 
negotiations  on  foot  between  Rome  and  Vienna,  negotia- 
tims  complicated  by  various  factors.  The  Pope  and  the 
Caria  were  wrathful  at  the  reforms  enacted  and  projected 
bj  the  council,  and  were  anxious  to  dissolve  it  at  any  cost, 
wiile  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  was  resolved  to  prolong  its 
sejsions  until  he  should  obtain  his  desires.  Then  he  had 
hai  his  son  Maximilian,  King  of  Bohemia,  elected  as  King 
of  :he  Romans,  24  November,  1562,  sorely  against  the  will 
of  Pius  IV.,  who  had  vainly  threatened  to  deprive  the 
Lutheran  electors  of  their  votes  and  then  secretly  to  restore 
them  on  condition  of  their  electing  Philip  II.  of  Spain. 
Fahng  in  this,  as  the  Holy  See  claimed  the  right  of  con- 
fiming  the  election,  he  demanded  that  Maximilian  should 
ta^e  an  oath  practically  of  allegiance  to  Rome,  which  was 
mturally  refused.  Maximilian,  in  fact,  had  long  been 
suspected  of  Lutheran  proclivities  ;  in  1557  we  find  him 
described  as  keeping  a  married  Lutheran  preacher,  while 
the  most  influential  members  of  his  court  were  Lutherans, 
and  he  felt  the  necessity  of  friendly  relations  with  the 

1  Art.   V. — Lettere  del  Arcivesc.    Calini  (Balnz   et   Mansi  IV.  295). — Le  Plat, 
V.  674. 


200  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Lutheran  princes,  whose  support  was  indispensable  against 
the  Turk.  The  ecclesiastical  electors  (Mainz,  Treves,  and 
Cologne)  had  hesitated  to  give  him  their  votes  till  they 
had  assurances  which  satisfied  them,  but  not  the  more  in- 
credulous Curia.  Philip  II.  seems  to  have  had  no  aspira- 
tions for  the  imperial  crown,  but  he  was  fanatically- 
opposed  to  any  concessions  to  the  heretics,  whether  these 
concerned  the  use  of  the  cup  or  priestly  marriage,  and 
through  his  representatives  at  Rome  and  Trent  he  cease- 
lessly brought  to  bear  against  them  the  utmost  weight  of 
his  great  influence.^  |         | 

Our  knowledge  of  the  moves  in  this  complicated  game 
is  but  fragmentary.  We  hear  of  a  letter,  in  April  1562, 
in  which  Ferdinand  claims  priestly  marriage  as  a  thirg 
promised  to  him  by  Pius  in  order  to  have  an  end  put  :o 
the  council,  and  other  letters  in  which  he  threatens  that  if 
his  requests  are  denied  he  will  assemble  a  national  countil 
and  proclaim  an  Interim  worse  than  that  of  Charles  V. ;  or 
else  that  Germany  would  withdraw  from  the  Roman 
obedience,  as  there  was  no  other  remedy  to  satisfy  fiis 
people.  These  threats  greatly  troubled  the  Pope,  vho 
begged  Philip  to  send  to  Germany  a  personage  of  impr- 
tance  to  represent  that  if  Ferdinand  separated  himself  fom 
the  Holy  See  he  would  become  a  heretic  and  his  children 
would  be  incapacitated  from  inheriting  his  dominions.  lot 
relying  on  Philip's  intervention,  in  May  he  sent  Cardinal 
Morone  ostensibly  as  legate  to  the  council,  but  with  n- 
structions  to  tarry  there  only  twenty-four  hours,  and  hasten 
to  Vienna.  In  reporting  this  to  Philip,  his  ambassador 
Vargas  expresses  the  liveliest  apprehensions  that  it  would 
result  in  the  concession  of  the  cup  to  the  laity  and  mar- 
riage to  priests,  so  earnestly  demanded  by  the  Germans  and 

1  DoUinger,  Beitrage  zur  politischen,  kirchlichen  und  Cultur-Geschichte,  I. 
241-3,  329-40,  397-8,  526-9.  554  (Regensburg,  1862). 

This  is  a  series  of  despatches  between  Philip  and  his  envoys  which  throw  much 
light  on  the  secret  history  of  this  tortuous  diplomacy. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  201 

French,  for  the  Pope  had  shown  himself  so  yielding  and  so 
inclined  to  make  the  grant,  and  he  could  readily  control 
the  council  if  he  did  not  care  himself  to  take  the  responsi- 
bihty  of  what  would  set  the  world  ablaze.  What  terms 
were  reached  between  Ferdinand  and  Morone  it  would  be 
impossible  to  say,  but  that  a  bargain  was  concluded  was 
generally  understood.  In  fact,  in  March  1564  Pius  ad- 
mitted in  consistory  that  he  had  made  promises  to  Ferdi- 
nand in  order  to  hasten  the  dissolution  of  the  council.^ 
Possibly  it  was  in  concert  with  this  that,  as  reported  in 
August  1563  by  the  nuncio  Delfini  from  Vienna,  the  three 
ecclesiastical  electors,  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  and  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria  held  a  conference,  in  which  it  was  resolved 
to  unite  with  the  Emperor  in  an  appeal  for  bulls  permitting 
priestly  marriage  and  communion  in  both  elements.^  In 
pursuance  of  this,  early  in  September  Ferdinand  wrote  to 
his  ambassadors  at  Trent  that  he  had  called  together  in 
Vienna  the  deputies  of  the  electors  and  princes  of  the 
empire,  who,  after  mature  deliberation,  had  determined  to 
ask  these  concessions  of  the  Pope  and  not  of  the  council. 
He  enclosed  a  protocol  of  the  demand,  but  as  it  was  not 
fully  settled,  it  was  to  be  communicated  to  no  one  but  to 
Philip's  ambassador,  the  Count  of  Luna,  whereupon  Philip 
persuaded  him  to  withhold  it  until  after  the  council  should 
be  dissolved.^  A  further  move  in  the  game,  with  the 
same  purpose,  was  a  promise,  later  in  the  autumn,  by 
Pius,  that  when  the  council  should  be  out  of  the  way  he 

1  Dollinger,  op.  cit.  pp.  523,  545-6,  655. 

2  Lettere  del  Nunzio  Visconti,  n.  LXix  (Ed.  Amstelod.  II.  299).  This  and  the 
concluding  letters  are  not  in  Mansi's  edition. 

Sarpi  tells  us  (Istoria  del  Concilio  Tridentino,  Lib.  viil.  Ed.  Helmstat,  II.  315) 
that  in  the  spring  of  1563  the  Bavarians  rose  in  revolt  and  demanded  the  cup  and 
priestly  marriage,  when  the  Duke  was  obliged  to  make  a  promise  to  his  Diet  that,  if 
the  concessions  were  not  made  in  June  by  either  the  council  or  the  Pope  he 
would  himself  grant  them.  The  threatened  defection  of  this  Catholic  stronghold 
caused  such  alarm  that  the  legates  despatched  Niccolo  Ormanetto  to  the  Duke  to 
induce  him  to  withdraw  his  promise,  under  a  pledge  that  the  council  would  take 
such  action  as  would  satisfy  his  people. 

3  Pallavicini,  Lib.  xxii.  cap.  10. — Dollinger,  I.  568. 


202  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

would  send  a  legate,  with  full  powers  to  dispense  in  the 
matters  of  the  cup,  of  clerical  marriage,  and  of  the  reten- 
tion of  Church  lands,  while  Maximilian  should  treat  with 
the  Protestants  for  their  return  to  the  Church  under 
these  concessions.^ 

Evidently  the  honest  Germans  were  ill  fitted  to  cope 
with  Italian  diplomacy.  Relying  on  papal  promises,  they 
held  their  hands  off  from  the  council,  which  enabled  the 
Pope  to  control  it  absolutely  through  his  legates.^  Ac- 
cordingly it  went  on  its  accustomed  way  to  render  the 
breach  with  Protestantism  as  impassable  as  possible.  Pal- 
lavicini  doubtless  correctly  represents  its  views  when  he 
remarks,  concerning  the  princes  who  exerted  themselves 
to  secure  sacerdotal  marriage,  that  they  seemed  to  con- 
sider that  the  council  had  been  convoked  for  the  purpose 
not  of  condemning  but  of  contenting  the  heretics,  whom 
they  proposed  to  convert  by  gratifying  in  place  of  repress- 
ing their  contumacious  desires.^ 

The  result  of  thus  skilfully  shielding  the  council  from 
all  pressure  from  Germany  and  France  was  that  the 
question  of  retaining  sacerdotal  celibacy  was  prevented 
from  becoming  the  subject  of  serious  debate.  This, 
indeed,  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  In  the  minute 
account,  transmitted  from  day  to  day  by  Archbishop 
Calini  to  Cardinal  Cornaro,  in  which  all  the  details  of 
internal  discussion  and  external  intrigue  attainable  by  a 
quick-witted  member  of  the  council  were  reported,  there 
is  no  allusion  to  the  matter.  No  debates  or  diversity  of 
opinion  are  mentioned,  no  intimation  that  the  matter  was 
regarded  as  open  to  a  doubt,  and  even  the  appeals  made 
by  the  Emperor  and  other  potentates  are  passed  over  in 

1  Bollinger,  I.  538. 

2  Vargas,  writing  to  Philip,  20  May,  1563,  when  he  was  fearing  that  the  Pope 
would  yield,  describes  the  ease  with  which  he  could  control  the  council :  "  Sin  tener 
los  pobres  hombres  mas  boca  y  vigor  que  lo  que  los  dichus  legadas  quieren  6  insinuan 
como  muchasveces  ha  dicho,  y  que  genero  de  gentes  son  aquellas." — Ibid.  p.  523. 

3  Pallavicini,  Lib.  xvii.  cap.  4. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  203 

silence,  for  the  very  sufficient  reason  that  the  papal  legates, 
who  controlled  all  the  business  of  the  council,  refused 
to  allow  them  to  be  read/  In  their  reply  to  the  Em- 
peror's remonstrances,'  indeed,  they  declared  that  to  have 
such  a  subject  publicly  broached  in  the  council  would 
create  a  fearful  scandal  throughout  Christendom,  and 
Pius  IV.  approved  of  their  answer  as  the  best  that  could 
be  given.  ^  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  in  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  nuncio  Visconti  the  only  allusion  to  the 
matter  is  a  simple  reference,  under  date  of  22  March, 
1563,  to  the  demand  previously  made  by  the  Duke  of 
Bavaria.^ 

In  fact,  when,  on  March  4,  the  5th  and  6th  articles 
were  reached,  they  were  both  unanimously  pronounced 
heretical  without  any  prolonged  debate.  Doctor  Juan  de 
Ludena  pronounced  a  "  disputation "  on  the  subject,  the 
tone  of  which  showed  that  the  result  was  already  decided, 
and  that  the  only  disposition  of  the  council  was  to  vilify 
those  who  desired  the  abrogation  of  celibacy.*  A  dis- 
cussion, however,  then  arose  as  to  the  power  of  the  Pope 
to  dispense  the  clergy,  both  regular  and  secular,  from  the 
obligation  of  celibacy,  and  on  this  point  there  was  con- 
siderable diversity  of  opinion,  occupying  numerous  suc- 
cessive meetings  in  its  settlement.  The  majority  were  in 
favour  of  the  papal  power,  and  its  exercise  in  the  existing 
condition  of  the  Church  was  even  recommended  by  those 
who  recognised  the  evils  of  the  system,  but  shrank  from 
the  responsibility  of  themselves  introducing  the  innovation. 

1  See  the  apologetic  letter  of  the  nuncio  to  the  Emperor,  19  January,  1562  (Le  Plat, 
op.  cit.  V.  320).  Ferdinand  remonstrated  earnestly,  but  did  not  venture  to  rebel 
against  their  decision  (Ibid.  351-60). 

2  Ibid.  p.  388. 

3  Lettere  del  Nunzio  Visconti  (Baluz.  et  Mansi,  III.  453). 

4  Disputat.  Joann.  de  Ludegna  (Harduin.  X.  359).  The  learned  doctor  presents 
his  argument  in  the  form  of  a  colloquy  between  himself  and  Calvin,  and  its  spirit 
may  be  gathered  from  the  first  speech  of  Calvin,  in  which  he  is  made  to  declare  that 
he  is  endeavouring  to  find  arguments  with  which  to  defend  himself  and  his  apostate 
strumpets. 


204  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

This  was  promptly  rebuked  by  the  conservatives,  according 
to  Fra  Paolo,  with  the  remark  that  a  prudent  physician 
would  not  attempt  to  cure  one  disease  by  bringing  on  a 
greater.^  It  was  not,  however,  until  November  11  that 
the  canons  on  matrimony  were  finally  adopted  and 
formally  published.  Of  these  there  are  two  relating  to 
our  subject.  The  first  one  pronounced  the  dread  anathema 
on  all  who  should  dare  to  assert  that  clerks  in  holy  orders, 
monks,  or  nuns  could  contract  marriage,  or  that  such  a 
marriage  was  valid,  since  God  would  not  deny  the  gift  of 
chastity  to  those  who  rightly  sought  it,  nor  would  He 
expose  us  to  temptation  beyond  our  strength.  The  other 
similarly  anathematised  all  who  dared  to  assert  that  the 
married  state  was  more  worthy  than  virginity,  or  that  it 
was  not  better  to  live  in  celibacy  than  married.^  In  the 
preliminary  congregation,  held  October  13,  they  had  been 
adopted  without  a  dissenting  voice,  save  that  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Sens  and  the  Bishop  of  Verdun  desired  the  words 
"  non  obstante  lege  ecclesiastica  vel  voto  "  to  be  omitted 
from  the  ninth  canon.^  The  tenth  canon,  though  directed 
against  the  Protestants,  was  by  no  means  uncalled-for 
among  Catholics.  About  this  period  the  Spanish  Inquisi- 
tion commenced  to  treat  as  a  heresy  the  assertion  that  the 
married  state  is  preferable  to  the  celibacy  prescribed  for 
the  clergy,  when  the  number  of  cases  which  speedily 
appeared  in  the  records  and  continued  for  nearly  a  century 

1  Sarpi,  Lib.  vii.  (Opere,  II.  280.) 

2  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxiv.     De  Sacrament.  Matrimon. 

Can.  IX.  Si  quis  dixerit  clericos  in  sacris  ordinibus  constitutes,  vel  regulares 
castitatem  solemniter  professes,  posse  matrimonium  contrahere,  contractumqne 
validum  esse,  non  obstante  lege  ecclesiastica  vel  voto  ;  et  oppositum  nihil  aliud  esse 
quam  damnare  matrimonium  ;  posseque  omnes  contrahere  matrimonium,  qui  non 
sentiunt  se  castitatis,  etiamsi  eam  voverint,  habere  donum  ;  anathema  sit  ;  quum 
Deus  id  recte  petentibus  non  deneget,  nee  patiatur  nos  supra  id  quod  possumus 
tentari. 

Can.  X.  Si  quis  dixerit  statum  conjugalem  anteponendum  esse  statui  virginitatis 
vel  ccElibatus,  et  non  esse  melius  ac  beatius  manere  in  virginitate  aut  coelibatu,  quam 
jungi  matrimonio,  anathema  sit. 

3  Theiner,  Acta  genuina  Concilii  Tridentini,  II.,  428,  429  (Zagrabice,  1874). 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  205 

show  how  widely  spread  and  persistent  among  the  people 
was  this  belief/ 

Thus,  while  keeping  the  Germans  and  French  quiet 
with  delusive  promises,  the  Church  devoted  its  energies 
to  the  miserable  task  of  separating  itself  as  widely  as 
possible  from  those  who  had  left  it.  Its  rulers  seemed  to 
imagine  that  their  only  hope  of  safety  lay  in  entrenching 
themselves  behind  the  exaggerations  of  those  particular 
points  of  policy  which  had  afforded  to  their  adversaries 
the  fairest  chances  of  attack.  The  faithful  throughout 
Germany  might  suffer  from  the  absence  of  the  ministers 
of  Christ,  or  might  endure  yet  more  from  the  unrestrained 
passions  of  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing  let  loose  among  their 
wives  and  daughters,  but  the  Church  militant  in  this 
conjuncture  dreaded  even  more  to  lose  the  aid  of  that 
monastic  army  which,  in  theory  at  least,  had  no  earthly 
object  but  the  ser\ice  of  St.  Peter  ;  it  selfishly  feared  that 
the  parish  priest  who  might  legitimately  see  his  fireside 
surrounded  by  a  happy  group  of  wife  and  children  would 
lose  the  devotion  which  a  man  without  ties  should  enter- 
tain for  the  prosperity  and  glory  of  the  ecclesiastical 
estabhshment ;  and  perhaps,  more  than  all,  it  saw  with 
terror  avaricious  princes  eager  for  the  secularisation  of  that 
immense  property  to  which  it  owed  so  large  a  portion  of 
the  splendour  which  dazzled  mankind,  of  the  influence 
which  rendered  it  powerful,  and  of  the  luxury  which  made 
its  high  places  attractive  to  the  ambitious  and  able  men 
who  controlled  its  destiny.  To  put  an  end,  therefore,  at 
once  and  for  ever,  to  the  mutterings  of  dissatisfaction 
among  those  who  compared  the  domestic  Hfe  of  the 
Protestant  pastors  with  the  reckless  self-indulgence  of  the 
ministers  of  the  old  religion,  it  was  resolved  to  place  the 
canon  of  celibacy  in  a  position  where  none  of  the  orthodox 
should  dare  to  attack  it,  and  to  accomplish  this  the  simple 

1  See  the  author's  History  of  the  Inquisition  of  Spain,  vol.  iv.  p.  144. 


206  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

rule  of  discipline  was  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  a  point  of 
belief.  As  the  Church  had  already  been  forced,  in  defend- 
ing the  rule  from  the  assaults  of  the  Reformers,  to  attribute 
to  it  apostolic  origin,  we  may  not  perhaps  be  surprised 
that  it  was  made  a  point  of  doctrine,  but  we  cannot  easily 
appreciate  the  reasons  that  would  justify  the  anathema 
launched  against  all  who  regarded  the  marriage  of  those 
in  holy  orders  as  binding.  The  dissolution  of  such  mar- 
riages, as  we  have  seen,  was  not  suggested  until  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  the  decision  of  the 
council  thus  condemned  as  heretics  the  whole  body  of  the 
Church  during  three-quarters  of  its  previous  existence. 

Although  the  doctrinal  canon  threw  the  responsibility 
of  priestly  unchastity  upon  God,  yet  as  the  council  had  so 
peremptorily  refused  to  adopt  the  remedy  urged  by  the 
princes  of  the  empire,  it  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  human 
means  to  remove,  if  possible,  the  scandals  which  God  had 
had  permitted  to  afflict  the  Church.  The  decree  of  refor- 
mation, published  in  December  1563,  contained  provisions 
intended  to  curb  the  vice  which  the  Tridentine  fathers, 
with  all  their  reliance  on  Divine  power,  well  knew  to  be 
ineradicable.  These  provisions,  however,  were  little  more 
than  a  repetition  of  what  we  have  seen  enacted  in  every 
century  since  Siricius.  Any  ecclesiastic  guilty  of  keeping 
a  concubine,  or  woman  liable  to  suspicion,  was  admonished  ; 
disregarding  this  first  warning,  he  was  deprived  of  one- 
third  of  his  revenue  ;  if  still  contumacious,  suspension  from 
functions  and  benefice  followed ;  and  a  persistence  in 
guilt  was  then  visited  with  irrevocable  deprivation.  No 
appeal  from  a  sentence  could  gain  exemption ;  these  cases 
were  removed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  inferior  officials 
and  confided  to  the  bishops,  who  were  enjoined  to  be 
prompt  and  severe  in  their  decisions  ;  while  guilty  bishops 
were  liable  to  suspension  by  their  provincial  synods,  and, 
if  irreclaimable,  were  sent  to  Rome  for  punishment.     The 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  207 

illegitimate  children  of  priests  were  pronounced  incapable 
of  preferment.  Those  already  in  orders,  if  employed  in 
their  fathers'  parishes,  were  required,  under  pain  of  depriva- 
tion, to  exchange  their  positions  within  three  months  for 
preferment  elsewhere,  and  any  provision  made  by  a  clerical 
parent  for  the  benefit  of  his  children  was  pronounced  to  be 
a  fraud.  ^ 

Such  were  the  regulations  which  this  great  general 
council  of  the  Catholic  Church  considered  sufficient  to 
relieve  the  establishment  of  the  curse  which  had  hung 
around  it  for  a  thousand  years.  There  is  nothing  in  them 
that  had  not  been  tried  a  hundred  times  before,  v^th  what 
success  the  foregoing  pages  may  attest.  In  some  respects, 
indeed,  they  were  not  as  prompt  and  efficacious  as  the 
decrees  which  Charles  V.  and  his  bishops  had  promulgated 
a  few  years  previous,  and  which  had  proved  so  lament- 
ably inefficient.  There  were  not  wanting  enlightened 
members  of  the  council  who  bitterly  felt  the  inefficiency 
of  what  they  were  doing,  but  the  undignified  haste  of  the 
closing  sessions,  and  the  domination  of  Rome,  rendered 
them  unable  to  accomplish  more.  As  the  Bishop  of 
Astorga  said  in  a  letter  to  Granvelle,  "  They  are  not  as 
we  would  have  wished,  to  correct  the  abuses  and  scandals 
of  the  Church,  which  cause  so  many  to  fall  into  error, 
but  we  have  to  do  what  we  are  permitted  to  do,  not 
what  we  would  wish  to  do."^  Heretics,  indeed,  who 
asserted  that  there  was  in  reality  no  intention  of  sup- 
pressing concubinage,  could  point  in  justification  to  the 
curious  fact  that,  while  previous  councils  had  provided 
heavy  penalties  against  the  concubines  of  priests,  that  of 
Trent  passed  them  over  as  though  they  were  guiltless. 

Within  two  months  after  the  dissolution  of  the  council, 

1  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxv.  Decret.  de  Keformat.  cap.  14,  15. 

2  Ma  noi  facciamo  quello  che  ci  si  permette  di  fare,  non  quello  che  vorremmo. — 
Examinatore,  Firenze,  1868,  p.  15. 


208  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Ferdinand  and  Albert  of  Bavaria  presented  to  the  Pope 
their  requests,  which  were  more  moderate  than  might 
have  been  expected.  The  two  papers  were  essentially 
the  same.  In  the  name  of  the  princes  of  the  empire, 
after  demanding  the  communion  in  both  elements  for 
the  laity,  they  proceeded  to  argue  earnestly  for  the  other 
concession.  In  place  of  asking,  as  before,  the  privilege 
for  the  clergy  at  large,  they  now  reduced  their  entreaties 
to  the  simple  request  of  allowing  such  Catholic  priests 
as  had  entered  into  matrimony  to  retain  their  wives 
and  perform  their  functions,  which  they  assured  the  Pope 
was  absolutely  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  frag- 
ments of  the  Church  still  doing  battle  with  the  prevail- 
ing heresies  throughout  Germany.^     They  likewise  asked 

1  Goldast.  II.  380.— Le  Plat,  VI.  310,  312. 

It  is  observable  from  this  that  many  priests  left  the  Church  and  married  without 
formally  embracing  the  Lutheran  faith,  and  a  return  of  these  was  anticipated  from 
a  relaxation  of  the  canons.  Others,  as  may  be  gathered  from  various  references 
above,  married  and  still  performed  their  regular  duties.  Of  these,  some  no  doubt 
acted  in  virtue  of  dispensations  granted  by  tha  nuncios  of  Paul  III.,  after  the 
promulgation  of  the  Interim,  but  many  did  so  in  utter  contempt  of  discipline.  An 
illustrative  example  of  the  latter  class  may  be  found  in  the  well-known  Stanislas 
Orzechowski,  whose  marriage,  notwithstanding  his  prominent  position,  shows  the 
laxity  of  opinion  which  prevailed  on  the  subject.  As  priest  and  canon  of  Przemysl 
in  Poland,  his  marriage  naturally  gave  great  offence  to  his  colleagues,  which  was 
not  diminished  by  a  dissertation  which  he  wrote  in  favour  of  priestly  marriage. 
This,  he  subsequently  claimed,  had  been  prepared  for  the  purpose  of  laying  it  before 
the  Council  of  Trent,  and  its  publication  had  arisen  from  the  indiscretion  of  a  friend 
to  whom  he  had  entrusted  it.  Somewhat  contaminated  with  the  new  ideas  by  his 
education  at  Wittenberg,  he  sturdily  refused  to  give  up  either  his  wife  or  his 
position.  His  consequent  excommunication  he  disregarded,  though  according  to 
his  own  account  he  gave  up  on  marrying  his  benefices  and  the  ministry  (Lettera  a 
Guilio  III.  trad,  di  B.  Leoni,  Milano,  anno.  VI.),  and  notwithstanding  this  he  had  a 
very  narrow  escape  from  the  death  penalty,  and  his  condemnation  excited  a  com- 
motion throughout  Poland  that  was  very  favourable  to  the  spread  of  the  reformed 
opinions  (Orichovii  Annales,  pp.  71-84,  108,  Ed.  1854).  At  length  the  feeling  against 
the  pretensions  of  the  Church  became  so  strong  that  the  diet  of  1552  removed  all  the 
civil  and  temporal  penalties  of  excommunication,  so  that  he  triumphed  for  the  time, 
especially  asSigismund  II.  included  priestly  marriage  among  the  concessions  which 
he  requested  of  Paul  IV.  (Herzog,  Abriss.  III.  241.)  When  in  1556  the  legate 
Lippomani  held  a  synod  at  Lovictz,  he  called  to  account  those  who  had  connived  at 
so  great  an  irregularity.  They  denied  granting  the  dispensation,  saying  that  they 
had  only  suspended  the  censures  until  the  pleasure  of  the  Pope  should  be  known, 
but  at  the  same  time  many  prelates  used  all  their  influence  with  Lippomani  to  obtain 
one.     Lippomani  declared  that  he  had  no  power  to  grant  it,  nor  would  he  do  so  if 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  209 

that  in  such  places  as  could  not  obtain  a  sufficiency  of 
pastors,  the  bishops  should  be  empowered  to  ordain 
married  laymen  of  approved  piety,  learning,  and  fitness. 

These  appeals  were  successful  as  far  as  communion  in 
both  elements  was  concerned,  for,  on  April  16,  Pius  granted 
that  concession  under  certain  conditions.  The  subject  of 
priestly  marriage,  however,  he  still  postponed,  and  on 
June  17  we  find  Ferdinand  writing  to  Cardinal  Morone,  to 
express  his  thanks  for  what  he  had  obtained,  and  to  urge 
the  other  subject  on  the  consideration  of  the  papal  court. 
He  had  instructed  his  ambassador,  he  said,  to  press  it 
earnestly,  and  he  besought  the  Cardinal  to  aid  in  so  pious 
and  advantageous  a  work.^ 

Nor  was  this  the  only  means  which  Ferdinand,  then 
verging  rapidly  to  the  grave,  adopted  to  attain  the  object 

he  could,  seeing  that  Orzechowski  defended  himself  on  heretical  grounds  (Concil. 
Lovitiens. — Labbei  et  Coleti  Supp.  T.  V.  p.  702).  In  1561  Orzechowski,  in  his 
address  to  the  synod  of  Warsaw,  admitted  that  he  had  sinned,  but  claimed  that  he 
had  been  punished  sufficiently — "  Si  quis  igitur  a  me  quserat  :  Num  uxorem  sacerdos 
duxerim?  Duxisse  me  fatebor.  Peccasti  igitur?  Peccavi.  Poenas  ergo  peccati 
debes  ?  Debui  et  persolvi  "  (Doctrina  de  Sacerd.  Coelibatu,  Varsaviae,  1801).  He 
therefore  complained  of  the  persecutions  to  which  he  was  exposedion  account  of  his 
wife,  and  he  petitioned  both  the  Pope  and  the  Council  of  Trent  for  a  dispensation. 
While  the  Tridentine  fathers  refused  it,  some  authors  assert  that  it  was  granted  by 
Pius  IV.  to  him  as  an  exceptional  case  "  tibi  soli  Orichovio,"  but  careful  investiga- 
tion has  failed  to  discover  the  brief,  and,  according  to  Zaccaria,  the  Pope  merely 
sent  secret  orders  to  his  legate  Commendone  not  to  allow  Orzechowski  to  be 
molested,  but  at  the  same  time  to  give  no  publicity  to  an  act  of  tolerance  in  contra- 
vention of  the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent  (Gregoire,  Hist,  du  Mariage  des  Pretres 
en  France,  pp.  51-55). 

In  his  answer  to  Fricius,  Orzechowski  assumes  that  he  was  absolved  from  his 
excommunication  by  the  legate — "  Praeterea  a  sententia  excommunicationis,  qua 
eram  a  Joanne  Episcopo  Premisliensi,  ob  hanc  eandem  uxorem,  ex  ecclesia  pulsus,  a 
Legato  Komani  Petri  absolutus  cum  sim,  nihil  feci  contra  ilium"  (ap.  Doctrin.  de 
Sacerd.  Ccelibat.  p.  24).  He  also  alleges  the  extraordinary  excuse  that  he 
abandoned  the  priesthood  before  his  marriage. 

The  history  of  Orzechowski,  with  probably  a  less  fortunate  result,  is  no  doubt 
that  of  innumerable  others,  whose  obscurity  has  prevented  their  sufferings  from 
being  known  beyond  their  own  narrow  circle. 

Strype  (Annals,  I.  485-6)  asserts  that  after  the  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth  the 
Catholic  emissaries  in  England  had  a  general  dispensation  to  marry,  in  order  to 
assist  their  concealment  and  to  further  the  design  of  creating  schism  in  the 
Anglican  Church.  He  gives  as  his  authority  one  Malachi  Malone  a  converted  Irish 
friar. 

1  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  VI.  331. 

VOL.  II.  O 


210  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

of  his  unwearied  pursuit.  Georg  Witzel  had  thrown  aside 
the  monastic  gown  in  1531,  to  embrace  the  errors  of 
Lutheranism,  but  had  returned  to  the  old  rehgion.  His 
learning  and  piety  earned  for  him  a  deserved  reputation, 
and  elevated  him  to  the  position  of  imperial  councillor, 
where  his  talents  were  devoted  to  the  endless  task  of 
bringing  about  a  reconciliation  between  the  Churches. 
George  Cassander,  equally  eminent,  had  never  incurred  the 
imputation  of  apostacy,  but  had  laboured  with  tireless 
industry  to  convert  his  erring  brethren  from  heresy  to  the 
true  faith.  Men  like  these  might  perhaps  be  heard  when 
the  voice  of  princes  and  prelates,  actuated  by  motives  of 
personal  advantage,  met  a  deaf  ear  ;  and  Ferdinand  applied 
to  them  for  disquisitions  on  the  subject.^  Before  their 
labours  were  concluded  the  monarch  was  dead  (July  25, 
1564),  but  his  son  Maximilian  II.  inherited  his  father's 
ideas,  and  gladly  made  use  of  the  opinions  which  the 
learned  Catholic  doctors  had  no  hesitation  in  expressing. 

Both  took  strong  ground  against  celibacy.  Cassander, 
while  defending  the  Church  for  originally  introducing  the 
rule,  deplored  the  terrible  and  abominable  scandals  which 
its  untimely  enforcement  caused  throughout  the  Church, 
and  he  urged  that  the  reasons  which  had  led  to  its  intro- 
duction not  only  existed  no  longer,  but  had  even  become 
arguments  for  its  abrogation,  since  now  the  choice  lay  only 
between  married  priests  and  concubinarians.  He  declared 
it  to  be  the  source  of  numerous  evils,  chief  among  which 
was  promiscuous  and  unbridled  licentiousness,  and  he  added 
that  the  already  scanty  ranks  of  the  priesthood  were  de- 

1  This  was  not  his  first  attempt  of  this  kind.  In  1540  he  had  called  upon  John 
Cochlseus  to  examine  the  Confession  of  Augsburg  and  report  as  to  what  points  were 
reconcilable  with  Catholicism  and  what  were  not.  Cochlaeus  responded  in  an 
elaborate  dissertation,  wherein  he  took  strong  ground  against  abandoning  celibacy, 
but  admitted  that  he  was  utterly  unable  to  suggest  any  remedy  for  the  evils  result- 
ing from  it — especially  the  "  scandalosus  presbyterorum  in  seculo  concubinatus, 
praesertim  apud  plebanos  in  pagis,  qui  communiter  cum  ancillis  rem  domesticam 
gubernare  necessitate  quadam  coguntur." — Le  Plat,  II.  667. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  211 

prived  of  the  accessions  which  were  so  necessary,  since  men 
of  a  rehgious  turn  of  mind  were  prevented  from  taking 
orders  by  the  universal  wickedness  which  prevailed  under 
the  excuse  of  celibacy,  while  pious  parents  kept  their  sons 
from  entering  the  Church  for  fear  of  debauching  their 
morals.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  sought  a  life  of 
ease  and  licence  were  attracted  to  the  holy  calling  which 
they  disgraced.  He  was  even  willing  to  permit  marriage 
in  orders,  arguing  that  it  was  only  a  question  of  canon  law, 
in  which  faith  and  doctrine  were  not  involved.  As  regards 
the  monastic  orders,  while  fully  appreciating  the  principles 
upon  which  the  system  was  founded,  he  warmly  deplored 
the  corruption  engendered  by  wealth  and  luxury.  Though 
the  convents  contained  many  pious  and  holy  men,  still  for 
the  most  part  rehgion  was  forgotten  in  the  observance  of 
ceremonies  that  had  lost  their  significance,  and  nothing 
could  be  more  licentious  and  profane  than  the  life  led  in 
many  of  the  monasteries.^  Witzel  was  equally  severe  in 
his  denunciations  of  the  clerical  licentiousness  attributable 
to  the  rule  of  celibacy,  and  concluded  his  tract  by  attacking 
the  supineness,  blindness,  and  perversity  of  the  prelates 
who  suffered  such  foulness  to  exist  everywhere  among  the 
priesthood,  in  contempt  of  Christ  and  to  the  burdening  of 
their  consciences.^ 

It  was  already  evident  that  both  the  great  objects  for 
which  the  Council  of  Trent  had  ostensibly  been  assembled 
were  failures  ;  that  it  would  effect  as  little  for  the  purifica- 
tion of  the  Church  as  for  the  reconciliation  of  the  heretics. 
Perhaps  Maximilian  felt  that  under  these  circumstances  no 
one  could  deny  the  necessity  of  such  changes  as  would  at 
least  afford  a  chance  of  the  reformation  that  could  no 
longer  be  expected  of  the  Tridentine  canons ;  perhaps  he 

1  G.  Cassandri  Consult,  xxili.,  XXV.  (Le  Plat,  VI.  761-2,  783-4.) 

2  Wicelii  Via  Regia,  De  Conjug.  Sacerd. 

Both  these  tracts  were  printed,  with  other  controversial  matter,  by  Hermann 
Conring,  4to.  Helmstadt,  1569. 


212  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

felt  strengthened  by  the  support  of  his  ecclesiastical  coun- 
sellors and  controversialists ;  perhaps,  with  the  zealous 
hopefulness  of  youth,  he  felt  a  confidence  of  which  age  and 
many  disappointments  had  deprived  his  father ;  or  perhaps 
he  was  encouraged  by  the  concession  to  his  subjects  and  to 
those  of  Albert  of  Bavaria  of  the  communion  in  both 
elements,  not  knowing  that  in  two  short  years  it  would  be 
withdrawn.  Certain  it  is  that  in  a  negotiation  with  the 
Bishop  of  Ventimiglia,  papal  nuncio  at  his  court,  he  lost  no 
time  in  renewing,  with  increased  energy,  the  effort  to 
obtain  the  recognition  of  married  priests.  After  the 
departure  of  the  nuncio,  he  addressed,  in  November  1564,  a 
most  pressing  demand  to  Pius  IV.,  in  which  he  declared 
that  the  matter  brooked  no  further  postponement ;  that 
throughout  Germany,  and  especially  in  his  dominions,  there 
was  the  greatest  need  of  proper  ministers  and  pastors  ;  that 
there  was  no  other  measure  which  would  retain  them  in 
the  Catholic  Church,  from  which,  day  by  day,  they  were 
withdrawing,  principally  from  this  cause.  He  assured  the 
Holy  Father  that  the  danger  was  constantly  increasing, 
and  that  he  feared  a  further  delay  would  render  even  this 
remedy  powerless  to  prevent  the  total  destruction  of  the 
old  religion.  If  only  this  were  granted  to  the  clergy,  even 
as  the  cup  had  been  communicated  to  the  laity,  he  hoped 
for  an  immediate  improvement.  The  bishops  could  then 
exercise  their  authority  over  those  who  at  present  were 
beyond  their  control,  as  unrecognised  by  the  Church ; 
and  so  thoroughly  was  this  lawless  condition  of  affairs 
understood  that  a  refuge  was  sought  in  his  provinces  by 
those  disreputable  pastors  who  were  banished  from  the 
Lutheran  states  on  account  of  their  disorderly  lives.  ^  His 
brother,  the  Archduke  Charles,  was  equally  urgent,  in  a 
letter  which  he  addressed,  a  few  days  later,  to  the  Pope, 
repeating  the  same  arguments,  and  assuring  him  that  the 


1  Goldast,  II.  381. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  213 

only  hope  for  the  true  rehgion  in  his  dominions  was  to 
find  some  means  of  admitting  the  services  of  a  married 
clergy.^ 

Ferdinand  and  MaximiHan  were  actuated  in  these  per- 
severing efforts  not  merely  by  the  desire  of  gratifying  the 
wishes  of  their  people,  or  of  remedying  the  depravity  of 
the  ecclesiastical  body.  It  had  been  a  favourite  project 
with  the  father,  warmly  adopted  by  the  son,  to  heal  the 
differences  between  the  two  rehgions,  and  to  restore  to  the 
Church  its  ancient  and  prosperous  unity.  In  their  opinion, 
and  in  that  of  many  eminent  men,  the  main  obstacle  to 
this  was  the  question  of  celibacy.  It  was  evidently  hope- 
less to  expect  this  sacrifice  of  the  Lutheran  pastors,  while 
numerous  members  of  the  Catholic  Church  regarded  the 
change  as  essential  to  the  purification  of  their  own  estab- 
lishment. The  only  mode  of  effecting  so  desirable  a 
reconciliation  was  therefore  to  persuade  the  Pope  to 
exercise  the  power  of  dispensation  which  the  Council  of 
Trent  had  admitted  to  be  inherent  in  his  high  office.  It 
thus  was  left  for  Pius  IV.  to  extricate  himself  from  the 
tangle  of  promises  with  which  he  had  evaded  the  pressure 
from  beyond  the  Alps.  His  position,  in  fact,  was  perplexing, 
for  the  council  had  thrown  on  him  the  responsibility,  by 
admitting  his  power  of  dispensation,  while  at  the  same 
time,  with  little  regard  for  consistency,  it  had  cast  the 
denial  of  sacerdotal  marriage  in  the  form  of  a  dogma  en- 
forced with  the  dread  anathema.  In  spite  of  this,  no  one 
on  either  side  of  the  question  seems  to  have  doubted  his 
power  to  dispense  with  the  dogma,  and  this  power  thus 
became  the  storm-centre  of  a  struggle  in  which  the  unfor- 
tunate Pius  reaped  to  the  full  the  results  of  his  double- 
dealing  policy. 

The  protagonist  of  conservatism  was  Philip  II.,  the 
most  powerftil  monarch  of  the  time  and  the  head  of  the 

1  Le  Plat,  VI.  335. 


214  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

only  thoroughly  Catholic  kingdom  beyond  the  Alps.  He 
threw  himself  into  it  with  such  vigour,  through  a  succes- 
sion of  envoys — Vargas,  Luis  de  Zuniga,  Luis  de  Reque- 
sens.  Cardinal  Pacheco,  Pedro  de  Avila — that  Pacheco 
reported,  20  April,  1565,  that  Pius  had  conceived  the  idea 
that  Philip's  purpose  in  urging  him  to  refuse  the  German 
demands  was  that  the  Emperor  would  then  withdraw 
from  the  Church,  so  that  Spain  should  remain  the  only 
Christian  country  and  Philip  thus  be  enabled  to  control 
the  Holy  See.  Pius,  in  fact,  at  times  scarce  knew  which 
way  to  turn.  A  few  days  earher  Pacheco  had  reported  an 
audience,  in  which  the  Pope  asked  him  to  obtain  Philip's 
advice  as  to  whether  he  should  grant  a  request,  repeatedly 
made  by  the  Emperor,  to  assemble  a  junta  of  learned 
prelates  from  all  Christendom  to  consider  the  matter.  It 
was  not,  he  said,  an  affair  of  divine  law,  requiring  a 
general  council,  but  of  positive  law ;  and  this  at  least 
would  have  the  advantage  of  postponing  a  decision. 
Pacheco  promised  to  write,  but  said  that  he  knew  that 
Philip  would  send  no  prelates  to  such  a  junta,  as  it  would 
scandalise  all  Spain ;  and  Phihp  would  regard  it  as  certain 
that,  if  the  concession  were  granted  to  Germany,  the 
Spanish  clergy  would  not  only  want  it,  but  would  go 
there  and  renounce  their  nationaUty,  in  order  to  lead  a 
dissolute  Hfe.  To  this  Pius  replied  that  he  knew  that  all 
Christendom  would  demand  it,  but  he  could  not  resist 
the  Emperor  without  the  vigorous  support  of  Phihp,  whom 
he  desired  to  use  his  influence  with  Maximihan  to  hghten 
the  pressure.  Pacheco  concludes  by  adverting  to  the 
weakness  and  vacillation  of  Pius,  who  inclined  first  to  one 
side  and  then  to  the  other.  ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  Maximilian  was  urging  the  con- 
cession with  greater  insistence  than  his  father,  and  the 
indecision  of  Pius  was  exemplified  in  a  consistory  held 

1  Bollinger,  op.  cit.  pp.  594-5,  598. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  215 

12  January,  1565,  chiefly  to  consider  the  matter.  He 
adverted  to  the  grant  of  the  cup,  which  Cardinal  Hosius 
of  Ermeland  reported  had  proved  of  much  advantage  in 
Germany  and  Austria,  both  in  retaining  CathoUcs  and 
winning  heretics,  while  in  Bohemia  it  had  been  received 
as  a  gift  from  heaven.  The  marriage  question  was  still 
more  important ;  the  Cardinal  and  other  prelates  admitted 
that  priests  were  few,  and  still  fewer  were  those  who 
desired  to  take  orders.  He  had  met  their  arguments 
and  abhorred  innovations  ;  although  so  pious  an  emperor 
deemed  it  necessary  for  his  dominions,  it  would  be  of  evil 
example,  for,  if  conceded  to  Germany,  no  one  knew  but 
that  it  would  be  demanded  by  Spain,  France,  and  Poland. 
He  wished  that  it  had  been  decided  by  the  council,  and 
that  the  burden  had  not  been  laid  on  him,  for  the  Emperor 
would  be  offended  if  refused  what  he  said  was  the  only 
remedy,  and  he  foresaw  the  action  that  might  be  taken  in 
the  approaching  Diet.  He  therefore  wanted  the  opinions, 
not  only  of  the  cardinals,  but  of  many  theologians,  and 
would  be  greatly  pleased  if  an  assembly  could  be  con- 
vened from  all  the  nations.  He  therefore  asked  the 
cardinals  to  consider  the  importance  of  the  affair,  and  to 
advise  him  freely  and  sincerely ;  he  would  hear  all,  and 
take  such  resolution  as  the  Holy  Ghost  might  inspire. 
To  this  appeal  the  only  response  seems  to  have  been  from 
Cardinal  Simoneta,  who  briefly  stated  that  he  had  been 
legate  to  the  Council  when  the  Emperor's  petitions  were 
presented,  and  it  had  been  deemed  wiser  not  to  bring 
the  matter  up  for  debate,  as  it  was  certain  that  clerical 
marriage  would  be  refused.  ^  The  report  of  this  consistory 
created  great  scandal  in  Spain,  and  Philip  wrote  a  strong 
letter  to  Pius,  representing  that  the  concession  would 
prove  the  destruction  of  Christianity  and  the  ruin  of  his 

1  DoUinger,  I.  588-90. — Lammer,  Meletunatum    Komanorum  Mantissa,   p.  217 
(Ratisbonae,  1875). 


216  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

dominions.  When  Cardinal  Pacheco  read  this  to  the 
Pope  he  sighed  and  groaned ;  he  could  not  but  listen  to 
so  powerful  a  sovereign  as  the  Emperor.  He  was  told  that 
it  would  bring  back  Germany  ;  that  there  were  no  priests 
there,  and  that  the  land  was  relapsing  into  paganism ; 
that  the  approaching  Diet  would  proclaim  an  Interim 
worse  than  that  of  Charles  V. ;  but  God  had  helped  him, 
for  the  Diet  had  been  postponed  until  September,  and 
they  thus  at  least  gained  that  much  time.^  Three  days 
after  Pacheco  writes  that  the  Pope  is  old  and  weak  and 
worn  out  with  perplexity ;  he  complains  that  he  is  left 
alone,  and  he  will  yield  not  only  this,  but  all  that  is  asked 
of  him,  unless  he  is  strongly  supported.  He  has  postponed 
it  as  long  as  he  can,  and  can  do  so  no  longer.^ 

When  Don  Pedro  de  Avila  was  sent  as  a  special 
envoy  on  the  question,  Philip,  in  his  instructions  of  10 
June,  1565,  told  him  that  from  the  way  in  which  the  Pope 
treated  the  matter  it  would  appear  that  he  was  pledged 
to  make  the  concession,  whether  it  was  one  of  the  articles 
agreed  upon  with  the  Emperor  for  the  dissolution  of  the 
council  or  subsequently,  and  the  expedients  suggested  for 
paving  the  way  to  it  were  inadmissible,  especially  the 
reference  to  the  German  prelates,  for,  even  if  they  should 
not  be  moved  by  the  desire  to  preserve  their  estates,  they 
could  not  exercise  free  judgment  in  their  anxiety  to  find 
a  remedy  for  the  condition  of  the  provinces  and  under 
the  pressure  of  the  Emperor,  the  princes,  and  the  people. 
When  the  use  of  the  cup  was  granted  he  had  kept  silent, 
but  this  was  vastly  more  important,  and  if  it  was  conceded 
he  would  make  a  great  "  demonstration  " — a  significant 
word  in  Spanish  parlance.^ 

De  Avila's  reports  were  reassuring.  The  Pope  de- 
clared that  he  had  given  no  pledge  as  to  marriage,  as  he 

1  Dollinger,  I.  591-3.  2  ibid.  pp.  596-7. 

3  Ibid.  pp.  605-7. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  217 

had  done  with  regard  to  the  cup ;  the  latter  had  been 
necessary  to  prevent  a  schism  by  dissolving  the  council. 
He  would  not  grant  it  unless  it  would  bring  back  all 
the  heretics,  and  even  then  he  would  hesitate.  The  danger 
from  the  Diet  had  passed  ;  he  had  dragged  the  matter 
along  for  six  years,  and  would  continue  to  do  so,  but 
he  would  not  drive  the  Emperor  to  despair.  To  gain 
time  he  had  sent  his  nuncios  Landriano  and  Guicciar- 
dini,  with  an  offer  to  pay  yearly  25,000  ducats  in  sup- 
port of  seminaries  to  supply  the  lack  of  priests,  and 
shortly  a  second  similar  sum  would  be  sent  to  keep 
Maximilian  in  good  humour,  for  the  Emperor,  it  seems, 
rejected  the  project  of  seminaries  while  evidently  keep- 
ing the  money.  Still  uncertainty  continued,  and  as 
late  as  December  2,  Cardinal  Pacheco  warns  Pliilip  to 
be  friendly  with  the  Pope  and  accede  to  his  request  for 
co-operation  in  the  Diet,  for  otherwise  he  will  have  to 
grant  to  Maximilian  and  other  princes  things  which  it 
will  grieve  Philip  to  hear.^ 

The  warning  was  superfluous,  for  in  a  week  Pius 
passed  away,  on  December  9,  having  accomplished  his 
purpose  of  evading  without  rejecting  the  demands  of 
nearly  all  the  Catholic  nations  beyond  the  Alps.  His 
successor,  St.  Pius  V.,  elected  7  January,  1566,  was  a 
man  of  different  temper.  Stern  and  inflexible,  animated 
with  the  loftiest  convictions  of  the  power  of  his  office  as 
the  representative  of  God,  his  policy  towards  heresy  was 
not  conciliation,  but  the  extermination  which  he  had 
practised  as  head  of  the  Inquisition.  Prompt  action  was 
necessary,  for  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  to  which  all  parties 
were  looking  for  a  solution  of  pending  questions,  was  to 

1  Bollinger,  I.  pp.  612-15,  621-6,  635-6,  646. 

That  at  this  time  the  rule  of  celibacy  was  regarded  as  in  imminent  danger  would 
appear  when  a  learned  Italian  lawyer  felt  called  to  address  to  Pius  IV.  an  elaborate 
work  arguing  against  its  abolition,  as  Marquardo  de'  Susani  did  in  his  Tractatus  de 
Cselibatu  Sacerdotum  non  abrogando,  printed  in  Venice  in  1566. 


218  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

be  held  in  March.  Triumphant  Protestantism  was  in 
hopes  of  winning  over  Maximilian  and  sundering  Ger- 
many from  the  Roman  obedience.  The  Catholics,  who 
were  the  weaker  party,  were  disheartened  and  in  lack  of 
a  leader  who  should  rally  their  wavering  ranks.  They 
found  him  in  the  new  Pope,  who  within  a  week  of 
consecration  despatched  a  courier  to  intercept  Cardinal 
Commendone,  then  on  his  return  from  Poland,  with 
orders  to  hasten  to  Augsburg  and  instructions  as  to  his 
duties  there.  At  the  same  time  letters  were  written  to 
Maximilian,  and  to  the  Catholic  princes  and  prelates, 
couched  in  a  very  different  tone  from  those  of  his  pre- 
decessor. The  Diet  must  confine  itself  exclusively  to 
secular  affairs,  and  not  meddle  with  anything  belonging  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Holy  See  ;  no  interference  with  the 
rites  and  institutes  of  the  Church  must  be  suffered,  nor 
any  change  be  made  in  what  the  Council  of  Trent  had 
decreed  and  the  Holy  See  had  confirmed.  If  this  was 
disobeyed,  Commendone  was  ordered  to  register  a  protest 
and  depart.  No  special  allusion  was  made  to  priestly 
marriage,  nor  was  it  required.  Commendone  fulfilled  his 
mission  with  indefatigable  dexterity,  and  was  ably  sup- 
ported by  the  representatives  of  Philip  II.  The  heretics 
were  prevented  from  interjecting  religious  questions,  and 
no  Interim  was  proclaimed.  Commendone  assembled  the 
Catholic  prelates  and  princes,  and  urged  them  to  accept 
the  decrees  of  Trent.  To  this,  after  consultation,  the 
Archbishop  of  Mainz  replied,  in  the  name  of  all,  that  they 
accepted  without  question  everything  that  concerned  faith 
and  worship,  but  there  were  some  points  of  discipline  for 
the  enforcement  of  which  quieter  times  must  be  awaited.^ 
Thus,  after  a  struggle  continued  at  intervals  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  the  rule  of  celibacy  was  left  undisturbed,  and 
the  counter-Reformation  had  begun. 

1  Ladenchii  Annales,  ann.  1566,  n.  219-24,  230,  238,  242-3. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  TRENT  219 

Still,  in  spite  of  conciliar  anathemas,  there  was,  after 
an  interval,  a  certain  amount  of  liberality  in  granting  dis- 
pensations for  marriage.  A  collection  of  decrees  of  the 
congregation  of  the  Inquisition  contains  a  number  of 
examples  of  these,  issued  between  1600  and  1630  to  sub- 
deacons  and  deacons  and  members  of  the  military  Orders, 
not  only  for  prospective  marriages,  but  for  those  already 
consummated,  including  the  legitimation  of  the  offspring. 
The  most  prominent  instance  is  one  of  18  December,  1625, 
to  Archduke  Leopold  of  Austria,  who  as  subdeacon  held 
the  bishoprics  of  Strassburg  and  Passau.  He  promptly 
resigned  the  sees,  and  in  1626  married  Claudia  de'  Medici, 
widow  of  Federigo,  Duke  of  Urbino.  The  numerous 
cases  of  members  of  the  religious  Orders,  of  both  sexes, 
who  left  their  houses  and  contracted  marriage  among 
heretics,  subsequently  seeking  return  to  the  Church,  illus- 
trates the  confusion  of  the  period,  while  the  benignity  with 
which  their  supplications  were  admitted  indicates  how 
impotent  was  the  Holy  See  to  enforce  the  rules  amid  the 
exigencies  of  the  struggle  between  orthodoxy  and  heresy 
in  the  lands  remaining  under  the  Roman  obedience.^ 

In  Spain,  as  may  readily  be  conceived,  there  was  no 
such  benignity.  Bishop  Simancas,  about  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  quotes  authorities  who  held  that  a 
priest  or  religious  who  married  publicly  was  subject 
to  the  Inquisition,  as  this  manifested  heretical  belief, 
while,  if  the  marriage  was  secret,  it  implied  no  intellectual 
error,  and  he  was  to  be  dealt  with  by  his  superiors ;  but 
Simancas  asserts  that  both  cases  implied  heresy,  and  the 
Inquisition  had  jurisdiction.^  The  Inquisition  took  the 
same  view,  and  its  name  inspired  a  terror  discouraging  to 

1  Decreta  Sac.  Congr.  S.  Officii,  pp.  84-140  (Bibl.  del  R.  Archivio  di  Stato  in 
Roma,  Fondo  Camerale,  Congr.  del  S.  Off.  vol.  iii.). 

2  Simanc*,  de  Catholicis  Institutis,  Tit.  XL,  n.  8-13. 


220  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

aspirants  to  clerical  matrimony.  Still,  its  records  show 
that  occasionally  there  were  those  who  dared  the  risk, 
trusting  to  escape  detection,  and  for  them  the  usual 
penalties  were  deprivation  of  functions  and  benefice,  and  a 
longer  or  shorter  term  of  service  in  the  galleys.^ 

1  See  the  author's  History  of  the  Inquisition  of  Spain,  vol.  iv,  p.  336. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

THE  POST-TRIDENTINE   CHURCH 

The  great  council,  on  which  so  long  had  hung  the  hopes 
of  the  Christian  world,  had  at  last  been  held.  The 
reformation  of  the  Church,  postponed  by  the  skilful  policy 
of  the  popes,  had  been  reached  in  the  closing  sessions,  and 
had  been  hurriedly  provided  for.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
regulations  which  concerned  the  morals  of  the  clergy  were 
sufficient  for  their  purpose,  if  only  they  could  be  enforced, 
yet  as  they  were  but  the  hundredth  repetition  of  an 
endeavour  to  conquer  human  nature,  which  had  always 
previously  failed,  even  those  who  enacted  them  could  have 
felt  Httle  faith  in  their  efficacy.  August  Baumgartner, 
the  Bavarian  ambassador,  in  his  address  to  the  council, 
27  June,  1562,  had  alluded  to  the  prevailing  belief  that 
any  comprehensive  effort  to  enforce  the  chastity  required 
by  the  canons  would  result  in  driving  the  mass  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  over  to  Protestantism.^  Since  continence 
was  held  by  them  to  be  impossible,  it  was  thought  that 
they  would  prefer  to  marry  their  concubines  as  Lutherans 
rather  than  give  them  up  as  Catholics.  Possibly  the  fear 
of  such  untoward  result  may  explain  the  slender  effect 
which  can  be  discerned  from  a  scheme  of  reform  so 
laboriously  reached  and  so  pompously  heralded  as  the 
panacea  for  the  woes  which  were  destroying  the  Church. 

Although  Catherine  de  Medicis  and  her  sons  refused 
to  allow  the  council  to  be  formally  published  in  France, 

1  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  V.  340. 


222  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

yet  she  permitted  its  decrees  to  be  freely  circulated,  and 
her  bishops  were  at  liberty  to  adopt  them  as  the  code  of 
discipline  in  their  dioceses.^  In  Germany  we  have  seen 
how  the  Catholic  princes,  secular  and  ecclesiastical, 
accepted  it  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  in  1566.  Philip  II., 
after  some  hesitation,  ordered  the  reception  of  the  council 
in  all  his  dominions,  which  extended  from  Naples  to  the 
North  Sea ;  ^  and  Poland,  despite  some  opposition  from  an 
ambitious  prelate,  submitted  to  it  before  the  year  1564  was 
ended.  ^ 

As  an  authoritative  exposition  of  the  law  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  conceived  and  elaborated  under  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  commanded  for  implicit 
observance  by  the  Vicegerent  of  God  ;  as  the  expression 
of  the  needs  and  wants  of  the  Catholic  faith,  wrought  by 
the  concentrated  energy  and  wisdom  of  the  leading  doctors 
of  Christendom,  and  transmitted  for  practical  application 
through  the  wondrous  machinery  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy, 
it  should  have  had  an  immediate  influence  on  the  evils 
which  it  was  intended  to  eradicate.  Those  evils  had  con- 
fessedly done  much  to  create  and  foster  the  schism  under 
which  the  Church  was  reeling ;  their  magnitude  was 
admitted  by  all,  and  no  one  ventured  to  defend  or  to 
palliate  them.     Their  removal  was  acknowledged  to  be  a 

1  The  Council  of  Trent  has  never  been  received  in  France.  For  a  rtiumd  of  the 
efforts  made  to  obtain  its  adoption  and  their  uniform  lack  of  success,  see  Chavart, 
Le  Celibat  des  Pretres,  pp.  507-12. 

2  In  August  1564  Philip  II.  had  ordered  its  publication  in  the  Low  Countries, 
but  Margaret  of  Parma  had  hesitated  to  obey  in  consequence  of  the  intense  opposi- 
tion excited  by  its  interference  with  local  liberties  and  franchises,  as  it  completed 
and  crowned  the  centralising  policy  which  rendered  the  papacy  supreme  over  all 
local  Churches.  It  was  not  until  18  December,  1565,  that  it  was  finally  promulgated, 
under  imperative  commands  from  Philip.  It  is  characteristic  of  Philip's  habitual 
double-dealing,  however,  that  while  his  public  orders  commanded  the  reception  of 
the  Council  without  exception,  he  secretly  reserved  the  rights  of  himself  and  his 
subjects  (Le  Plat,  Concil.  Trident.  VII.  Preef.  p.  vi.). 

3  By  a  bull  dated  18  July,  1564,  Pius  IV.  fixed  1  May,  1564,  as  the  time  when  the 
Tridentine  canons  became  the  law  of  the  Church.  His  letter  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Bremen,  with  an  oflBcial  copy  and  directions  as  to  its  promulgation,  is  dated 
October  3  of  the  same  year  (Hartzheim,  VII.  25). 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH       223 

necessity  of  the  gravest  character,  and  every  adherent  of 
Catholicism  was  bound  to  lend  his  aid  to  the  good  work. 
What,  then,  was  accomplished  by  the  council  which  had 
for  so  long  a  period  laboured  ostensibly  with  the  object  of 
restoring  Latin  Christianity  to  its  primitive  purity  ? 

To  few  of  the  long  line  of  popes  does  the  Church  owe 
so  much  as  to  St.  Pius  V.  When  he  ascended  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter,  Protestants  were  looking  forward  hopefully 
to  the  time  when  the  lands  of  the  Roman  obedience 
should  shrink  to  the  two  peninsulas  of  Italy  and  Spain. 
His  pontificate  was  too  brief  to  show  results  in  checking 
the  progress  of  revolt,  but  his  resolute  purpose  to  remove 
the  evils  that  had  led  to  it  laid  the  foundations  on  which 
the  counter-Reformation  was  built.  It  has  not  come 
within  our  scope  to  consider  the  abuses  and  corruption 
of  the  Curia  which  had  created,  throughout  Latin  Chris- 
tendom, a  detestation  of  the  Holy  See,  to  be  reckoned 
among  the  primary  causes  of  Luther's  success,  but  they 
were  inveterate,  and  to  their  removal  he  addressed  himself 
with  relentless  vigour.  That  he  should  show  equal 
soHcitude  in  the  harder  task  of  reforming  the  morals  of  a 
dissolute  clergy  was  to  be  expected,  and  this  he  lost  no 
time  in  attempting,  for  he  recognised  how  futile  were  the 
Tridentine  utterances  unless  they  should  be  unsparingly 
enforced.  Pius  IV.  had  allowed  two  years  to  elapse  in 
silence  after  the  dissolution  of  the  council,  but  Pius  V. 
lost  no  time,  and  on  1  April,  1566,  issued  a  brief  com- 
manding the  Ordinaries  of  all  Churches  to  execute  with 
vigour  the  conciliar  decrees  against  concubinary  priests.^ 
Then,  as  soon  as  the  dangers  of  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
were  safely  passed,  in  June  he  addressed  to  Maximilian,  to 
Albert  of  Bavaria,  and  to  the  German  bishops  letters  in 
which,  after  alluding  to  the  scandalous  lives  of  the  clergy 
as  one  of  the  leading  causes  of  heretic  success,  he  prescribed 

1  Pii  PP.  v.  Bull,  Cum  primum,  §  12  (Bullar,  Roman.  II.  191). 


224  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  most  active  measures  of  reform,  for  otherwise  what 
remained  of  Catholicism  in  Germany  would  be  ex- 
tinguished. The  bishops  were  ordered  to  make  visitations 
throughout  their  dioceses,  to  investigate  the  morals  of  their 
clergy,  to  expel  their  concubines,  and  to  punish  the  refrac- 
tory with  all  the  severity  of  the  laws,  depriving  them  of 
their  benefices  and  of  the  functions  which  they  polluted  ; 
moreover,  that  the  reform  might  be  thorough,  these 
instructions  were  accompanied  with  faculties  which  placed 
the  regular  Orders  under  episcopal  jurisdiction.  As  in  all 
this  they  would  need  the  support  of  the  secular  power, 
Maximilian  and  Albert  were  exhorted  to  lend  to  the 
prelates  all  aid  and  favour.^ 

The  immediate  result  of  this  was  not  encouraging. 
When  Bernard  Rasfelt,  Bishop  of  Munster,  in  his  synod 
of  1566  published  the  papal  commands,  the  fury  of  his 
canons  was  so  excited  that  they  forced  him  to  resign  his 
bishopric  and  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  obscurity.  He 
was  succeeded  by  Johann  von  Hoya,  Bishop  of  Osnabruck 
and  President  of  the  Imperial  Chamber,  a  man  dis- 
tinguished by  birth  and  learning,  who  speedily  wearied  of 
the  conflict  and  sought  peace  by  imitating  the  example  of 
his  subordinates.^  Three  years  later,  in  1569,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Salzburg,  in  response  to  a  fresh  exhortation  from 
Pius  to  reform  his  Church,  replied  that  he  and  his  suffragans 
had  never  ceased  to  attempt  it,  but  that  all  their  efforts 
had  been  fruitless  and  that  he  despaired  of  its  accom- 
plishment.^ 

Two  years  after  this,  in  1571,  we  have  a  summary  of 
the  condition  of  Germany  in  a  confidential  letter  of 
November  16  to  Philip  II.  from  Fray  Francisco  di 
Cordova,  the  confessor  to  the  Empress.     The  continued 

1  Ladenchii  Annales  ann.  1566,  n.  251-4. — Hartzheim,  VII.  231. 

2  De  Thou,  Hist,  univ.,  Lib.  xxxviii.  ann.  1566 — Ladenchii  Annales,  ann.  1566, 
n.  256. 

3  Dalham,  Concil.  Salisburgens.,  p.  556. 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH       225 

success  of  the  Protestant  movement  he  attributes  to 
clerical  disorders.  Maximilian  II.,  he  says,  "  is  regarded  as 
a  heretic,  for  he  shows  favour  to  heretics  and  admits  all 
their  preachers  to  audiences,  which  he  denies  to  Catholics. 
He  and  the  princes  hold  the  Pope,  the  cardinals,  and  the 
bishops  responsible  for  the  failure  of  reform  which  would 
restore  religion.  Throughout  all  Germany  the  bishops 
neither  preach  nor  celebrate  Mass  nor  perform  ecclesiastical 
functions,  but  seem  to  be  laymen  rather  than  clerics,  while 
of  the  clergy  at  large  there  is  scarce  one  without  a  wife 
or  concubine.  When  the  chapters  elect  bishops,  they  are 
required  to  swear  that  they  will  not  reform  the  canons, 
and  the  monasteries  are  full  of  laymen  and  w^omen.  For 
all  this  there  is  no  punishment,  and  the  bishops  and  canons 
excuse  themselves  by  saying  that  they  merely  live  as  the 
cardinals  do.  The  one  who  is  most  scandalised  by  all  this 
and  who  talks  the  most  about  it  is  the  Emperor.  The 
details  are  not  fit  to  write,  but  it  is  certain  that  if  the 
clergy  were  reformed,  Germany  would  accept  Catholicism, 
for  the  people  are  disgusted  with  the  clashing  of  opinions, 
and,  if  the  bishops  would  preach,  the  people  would  follow 
them,  but  as  long  as  there  is  no  reform  the  heresies 
increase  day  by  day,  and  little  by  little  the  heretics  obtain 
the  bishoprics  and  benefices.  I  know,  he  concludes, 
that  true  reform  would  win  back  many  heretics  and 
their  chiefs,  and  I  think  the  Emperor  would  not  be  the 
last."  ^ 

1  DoUinger,  op.  cit.  I.  654. 

At  this  period  the  Protestants  had  fair  prospects  of  winning  all  Germany,  but 
their  progress  was  arrested,  not  by  Catholic  reform,  but  by  the  fierce  doctrinal  dis- 
sensions between  Calvinists,  Lutherans,  and  Philippists,  who  hated  each  other  more 
than  they  did  the  common  enemy.  At  the  critical  moment  the  Jesuits  came,  with 
their  tireless  labour  and  skilful  policy  ;  the  Protestant  line  which  had  been  steadily 
advancing  was  driven  back,  and  finally  the  Thirty  Years'  War  established  the 
boundaries  which  have  remained  with  little  change. 

Against  the  lukewarmness  of  Maximilian  may  be  set  the  zeal  of  his  brother,  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  of  whom  de  Avila  writes  to  Philip  II.  1  December,  1565,  that 
it  is  said  for  certain  that  he  secretly  cast  some  heretic  preachers  into  a  well  in  his 
palace. — DoUinger,  p.  645. 

VOL.  II.  P 


226  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

The  German  clergy  were  not  without  justification  in 
shielding  themselves  behind  the  example  of  Rome,  where 
Pius  IV.  had  allowed  the  most  public  and  scandalous 
immorality  to  flourish  unchecked  under  his  immediate 
supervision.  In  1538  the  Consilium  de  Emendanda 
Ecclesise  had  animadverted  upon  the  cynical  licentious- 
ness of  the  Roman  clergy  in  terms  which  show  that  not 
much  improvement  had  taken  place  since  Petrarch's 
description  of  the  papal  court,^  and  the  intervening  thirty 
years  had  not  served  to  purify  it.  Pius  V.  included  this 
among  his  reformatory  efforts.  He  at  first  proposed  to 
banish  aU  the  public  women  who  would  not  give  a  pledge 
of  reformation  by  immediate  marriage,  and,  when  forced 
to  abandon  this  as  impracticably  harsh,  he  restricted  their 
residence  to  certain  houses,  and  forbade  their  plying  their 
vocation  in  the  streets  by  day  or  night.  Although  this 
admitted  the  necessity  of  the  evil  and  only  sought  to 
restrain  its  public  manifestation,  such  reform  was  deemed 
insuflferable.  The  clergy  were  ashamed  to  offer  open 
opposition,  but  urged  the  Senate  to  strenuous  resistance. 
The  remonstrance  presented  by  that  body  not  only  shows 
the  prevalent  immorality,  but  also  the  conviction  that 
immorality  was  inseparable  from  celibacy.  It  was  repre- 
sented that,  if  the  proposed  rules  were  enforced,  the 
prosperity  of  the  city  would  be  destroyed  and  the  rents  of 
houses  be  reduced  to  nothing,  and  it  was  urged  that,  amid 
so  vast  a  number  of  men  condemned  to  celibacy,  under 
such  restrictions  it  would  be  impossible  to  preserve  the 
virtue  of  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  citizens.  The 
contest  was  stubbornly  continued  until  at  length  Pius  was 
driven  to  declare  that  if  further  difficulties  were  interposed 

1  In  hac  enim  urbe  meretrices  ut  matronse  incedunt  per  urbem,  seu  mula 
vehuntur,  quas  affectantur  de  media  die  nobiles  familiares  cardinalium  clericique. 
Nulla  in  urbe  vidimus  banc  corruptionem  praeterquam  in  hac  omnium  exemplari, 
habitant  enim  insignes  aedes  :  corrigendus  etiam  hie  turpis  abusus. — Le  Plat,  Monu- 
ment. Concilii  Trident.  II.  604. 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        227 

he  would  leave  the  city.^  The  Germans,  moreover,  were 
not  mistaken  when  they  included  the  cardinals  among 
those  whom  they  imitated,  for  Sixtus  V.  in  1586  decreed 
that  no  one  who  had  children,  even  if  they  were  legitimate, 
should  be  eligible  to  the  cardinalate,  because  in  no  other 
way  could  assurance  be  had  of  the  observance  of  their 


vows.^ 


If  Pius  V.  met  with  opposition  in  the  task  of  purifying 
the  Augean  stable   of   Rome,    St.    Charles    Borromeo, 
encouraged  and  stimulated  by  his  example,  found  himself 
involved  in  a  more  dangerous  quarrel  when  he  attempted, 
in  the  equally  demoralised  city  of  Milan,  to  enforce  respect 
for  the  decrees  of  Trent.     In  1569  he  undertook  to  reform 
the  canons  of  S.  Maria  della  Scala,  whose  licentious  mode 
of  Hfe  was  a  scandal  to  the  faithful.     So  persistently  did 
they  deny  their  subjection  to  his  archiepiscopal  jurisdiction, 
that  after  a  long  discussion  his  only  resource  for  vindicat- 
ing his  authority  was  excommunication.     The  contuma- 
cious canons  were  still  indisposed  to  yield,  and,  assembling 
in  their  church,  they  maltreated  his  messenger.     Thinking 
that  his  presence  might  bring  them  to  reason,  he  ventured 
himself  to  expostulate  with  them,  and  found  them  drawn 
up   in   their   cemetery,   with   arms   in   their  hands,   and 
supported  by  soldiers  whom  they  had  hired.     On  reaching 
the  gate,  he  dismounted  from  his  mule   and   advanced 
towards  them  with  his  cross,  which  he  had  snatched  from 
his  cross-bearer.     Unabashed  by  this  symbol  at  once  of 
rehgion  and  authority,  the  mutinous  canons  rushed  upon 
him  with  shouts  of  "  Spagna  !  "  "  Spagna  !  "  brandishing 
their  weapons  and  discharging  their  fire-arms  at  the  cross 
in  his  hands — fortunately  without  injuring  him.     Having 
thus  driven  him  off,  they  continued  for  some  time  in  open 

i  De  Thou,  Hist.  univ.  Lib.  xxxix. 

2  Sixti  PP.  v.  Const.  Postquam  verus,  §  16  (Bullar.  Roman.  II.  611).— "Certum 
nequeat  snse  testimonium  continentiae  exhibere." 


228  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

rebellion,  until  they  were  at  length  obliged  to  submit, 
when  Pius  V.  and  Philip  II.  united  their  power  in  support 
of  St.  Charles.^ 

Still  greater  was  the  peril  to  which  the  saint  was 
exposed  in  his  quarrel  with  the  Umiliati.  They  were  a 
branch  of  the  Benedictine  Order,  founded  in  1180  by  the 
Milanese  who  escaped  the  destruction  of  their  city  by 
Frederic  Barbarossa.  Sharing  in  the  general  licence  of  the 
age,  the  excesses  of  the  Umiliati  became  so  infamous  that 
they  surpassed  in  turpitude  the  worst  exploits  of  the 
unbridled  youth  of  the  city.  Supported  by  the  decretals 
of  Pius,  in  1568  St.  Charles  undertook  to  reduce  the  Order 
to  the  observance  of  monastic  rule.  The  Umiliati  resisted 
with  so  much  energy  and  success  that,  after  two  years  of 
contest,  they  were  still  defiant.  Regarding  St.  Charles  as 
the  cause  of  all  their  troubles,  Girolamo  Lignana,  Provost 
of  S.  Cristoforo  di  Vercelli,  who  assumed  their  leadership 
in  1570,  engaged  a  monk  of  the  order  named  Girolamo 
Donati  to  murder  him.  The  blackness  of  the  deed  was 
not  reUeved  by  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
attempted.  While  the  holy  archbishop  was  absorbed  at 
midnight  in  his  devotions,  Donati  stole  into  the  oratory 
and  discharged  full  upon  him  an  arquebuss  loaded  with 
slugs.  Some  of  the  missiles  struck  St.  Charles,  but 
rebounded  to  the  floor,  leaving  him  unhurt,  and  the 
miraculous  nature  of  his  escape  was  proved  by  the  depth 
to  which  others  penetrated  the  walls.  At  this  moment 
the  policy  of  Philip  the  Catholic  supported  the  disaffected 
and  rebellious  monks,  and  for  some  time  yet  they  escaped 
the  retribution  due  to  their  many  crimes,  but  at  length 
those  concerned  in  the  attempted  murder  were  caught  and 
executed,  and  the  order  of  the  Umiliati  was  broken  up.^ 

1  Fleury,  Liv.  CLXXi.  chap.  104  et  seq. 

2  Muratori,  Annal.  ann.  1569. — Henrion,  Hist,  des  Ordres  Religieux,  I.  196. — 
Fleury,  Liv.  CLXXi.  chap.  26. — DeThou,  Lib.  L. — The  calm  Muratori  stigmatises  the 
Umiliati  as  "  troppo  scorretto  e  corrotto  ordine, "  and  Henrion,  who  cannot  cer- 


THE  POST-TMDENTINE  CHURCH        229 

In  fact,  the  Tridentine  reform,  so  loudly  heralded  as  a 
panacea  for  all  the  evils  afflicting  the  Church,  was  every- 
where confessedly  a  failure.  When,  in  1583,  President 
d'Espeisses  presented  to  Henry  III.  a  memorial  against 
the  publication  of  the  council  in  France,  he  drew  one  of 
his  arguments  from  the  greater  corruption  of  the  Italian 
Church,  where,  though  the  council  was  received  without 
demur,  yet  none  of  its  orders  reforming  the  morals  of  the 
clergy  received  the  least  attention.^  That  the  Tridentine 
canons  in  this  respect  were  wholly  inefficacious  throughout 
Italy,  and  that  the  officials,  with  rare  exceptions,  did  not 
venture  to  enforce  them,  can  indeed  be  seen  in  the  series 
of  provincial  councils  held  during  the  remainder  of  the 
century,  from  Lombardy  to  Naples. 

The  papacy  had  succeeded  in  crushing  the  reformers 
who  had  responded  in  so  many  Italian  cities  to  the 
uprising  in  Germany ;  it  had  then  convoked  and  managed 
at  its  will  the  great  congress  of  Catholic  Christendom 
which  was  to  put  an  end  at  once  and  for  ever  to  all  the 
evils  which  had  led  to  the  schism  ;  it  had  every  opportunity 
and  every  motive  for  vindicating  itself  from  the  asper- 
sions of  its  enemies,  and  yet  we  see  it  at  once  recur  to  the 
old  machinery  of  local  councils  enacting  canons  whose 
frequency  and  wordy  severity  are  the  inverse  measure  of 
their  efficiency.  Had  the  promises  of  reform  so  liberally 
made  been  possible  in  their  fulfilment,  there  had  been  no 
need  of  further  legislation.  A  convocation  of  the  ecclesi- 
astics of  each  province  to  receive  and  publish  the  decrees 

tainly  be  regarded  as  a  prejudiced  authority,  declares  that  "les  exc^s  des  Humilies 
surpassoient  ceux  des  laiques  les  plus  debauches."  Pius  V.,  in  his  bull  suppressing 
the  order,  is  equally  emphatic,  and  vouches  for  the  truth  of  the  miracle  by  which 
the  life  of  St.  Charles  was  preserved. — Bull.  Quemadmodum  soUicitus  (Mag.  Bull. 
Rom.  n.  326). 

I  Vu  que  par  toute  I'ltalie  on  le  vit  reconnoitre  pour  I'usage  et  observations  de 
toutes  les  ordonnances,  on  n'en  voit  une  seule  entretenue  de  celles  qui  concerne  la 
reformation  de  la  vie  et  moeurs  des  ecclesiastiques.  .  .  .  Et  ce  peut  dire  pour  ce 
regard  que  I'eglise  n'est  en  autre  lieu  de  la  Chretiente  si  dereglee  et  difforme  qu'^s 
pays  oi\  le  pape  a  commandement  et  puissance  absolu. — Le  Plat,  VII.  259. 


230  SACEHDOTAL  CELIBACY 

of  Trent  would  have  been  all-sufficient.  When,  therefore, 
we  see  the  endless  iteration  with  which  the  guilty  clergy 
were  threatened  with  the  Tridentine  canons,  and  with 
other  new  or  revivified  penalties — as  at  the  councils  of 
Milan  in  1565  and  1582,^  and  at  those  of  Manfredonia  in 
1567,  of  Ravenna  in  1568,  of  Urbino  in  1569,  of  Florence 
in  1573,  of  Naples  in  1576,  of  Cosenza  in  1579,  of  Salerno 
in  1596,  of  S.  Severino  in  1597,  and  of  Melfi  in  1597'— we 
can  only  conclude  that  the  evil  was  irremediable,  in  spite 
of  the  well-meant  efforts  to  suppress  it  or  to  throw  off  the 
responsibility  of  its  existence. 

In  fact,  the  manner  in  which  the  Council  of  Trent  was 
greeted  by  the  clergy  may  be  judged  from  its  treatment  in 
the  archiepiscopate  of  Utrecht.  Though  Philip  II.  had 
authoritatively  ordered  its  reception  in  1565,  w^e  find  the 
Duke  of  Alva  in  May  1568  issuing  his  commands  to  the  pre- 
lates of  the  five  Churches  of  Utrecht  to  offer  no  further 
opposition  to  it.  Even  so  stern  a  ruler  could  not  obtain 
immediate  obedience,  however,  to  so  obnoxious  a  series  of 
regulations,  and  they  responded  by  pleading  their  ancient 
privileges.  This  availed  them  little,  for  in  June  he  replied 
that  his  instructions  were  positive,  and  he  proceeded  to  en- 
force them  by  sending  royal  commissioners  to  the  province, 
empowered  to  carry  them  out.  In  July,  therefore,  the 
Archbishop  assembled  his  clergy,  and  in  conjunction  with 
the  commissioners  issued  a  series  of  regulations  designed  to 
give  effective  force  to  the  canons  of  the  council.  Visiting 
nunneries  and  haunting  taverns,  joining  in  dances   and 

1  Concil.  Mediolanens.  ann.  1565  P.  Ii.  Const,  xiv  (Harduin.  X.  661) — Concil. 
Mediolanens.  ann.  1582  Const,  xiv.  (Ibid.  p.  1117.) 

2  Concil.  8ipontin.  ann.  1667  De  Vit.  et  Honest.  Cleric. — Concil.  Ravennat.  ann. 
'568  De  Vit.  et  Honest.  Cleric,  c.  v. — Concil.  Urbinat.  ann.  1569  De  Vit.  et  Honest. 
Cleric,  c.  vi. — Concil.  Florent.  ann.  1573  Rubr.  xxxvii.  c.  3,  4. — Concil.  Neapol. 
ann.  1576  cap.  xxti. — Concil.  Consentin.  ann.  1579  Sess.  iv. — Concil.  Salernit.  ann. 
1596  cap.  XVIII. — Concil.  S.  Severin.  ann.  1597  De  Vit.  et  Honest.  Cleric. — Concil. 
Amalfitan.  ann.  1597  De  Vit.  et  Honest.  Cleric,  c.  v. — (Labbei  et  Coleti  Supplement. 
T.  V.  pp.  827-1331.) 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        231 

hunting  and  indecent  songs  were  forbidden.  The  clergy 
were  ordered  to  shave  their  beards  and  to  give  up  their 
concubines,  whom  they  were  not  to  retake  or  to  replace. 
Even  yet  they  did  not  yield,  but  while  they  were  ashamed 
to  claim  the  right  to  keep  their  female  companions,  they 
demurred  as  to  the  sacrifice  of  their  beards,  and  the 
Archbishop  was  obliged  to  issue  another  peremptory 
command.^ 

It  was  not,  however,  only  concubinage  which  the 
Council  of  Trent  failed  to  extirpate.  Even  the  denial  of 
sacerdotal  marriage,  which  it  had  elevated  to  the  dignity 
of  a  point  of  faith,  was  stubbornly  opposed,  and  was  not 
accepted  until  after  a  protracted  struggle. 

In  1569  we  find  the  synod  of  the  extensive  and  im- 
portant province  of  Salzburg  virtually  dividing  its  clergy 
into  two  classes — those  who  haunt  the  taverns  under 
pretext  of  getting  their  meals,  but  really  for  the  pur- 
pose of  indulging  in  drunken  riots  with  their  parishioners, 
and  those  who  keep  houses,  with  concubines  under  the 
guise  of  female  servants,  whom  they  secretly  marry,  and 
who  are  openly  known  by  their  husbands'  names.  To 
meet  this  condition  of  affairs,  the  synod  devised  an 
elaborate  system  by  which  the  richer  clergy  were  directed 
to  keep  as  domestics  respectable  middle-aged  married 
women  with  their  husbands,  while  the  poorer  ecclesiastics 
were  to  club  together  for  the  same  purpose.^  This  expe- 
dient proved  as  fruitless  as  its  predecessors,  for  in  1572 
Gregory  XIII.  complained  to  the  Archbishop  that  in 
many  places  priests  who  were  known  to  be  married  were 
permitted  by  their  bishops  to  celebrate  Mass  and  to  handle 

1  The  documents  are  in  Le  Plat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident.  VII.  199-201.  For 
the  condition  of  morals  in  the  Church  of  Holland,  see  Synod.  Harlem,  ann.  1564  ; 
Synod.  Ultraject.  ann.  1564  ;  Concil.  Ultraject.  ann.  1565  (Hartzheim,  VII.  5,  22, 
137).  It  was  to  the  publication  of  the  Council  of  Trent  that  William  of  Orange 
attributed  the  inevitable  revolution  which  followed  (Stradse  de  Bell.  Belgic.  Lib.  iv.). 

2  Synod.  Salisburg.  ann.  1569  Const,  xxvil.  cap.  xviii.,  xix.,  xx.,  xxi.,  xxii. 
(Hartzheim,  VII.  306-8.) 


232  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  sacred  elements/  In  spite  of  all  this  the  evil  continued 
unabated,  and  in  1616  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg,  in  his 
instructions  for  a  general  visitation,  ordered  that  all  priests 
should  remove  their  concubines  to  a  distance  of  at  least  six 
miles,  and  should  not  allow  their  illegitimate  children  to  live 
openly  with  them,  except  under  special  licence  from  him.^ 

In  1565,  Anthony,  Archbishop  of  Prague,  promulgated 
the  Council  of  Trent  in  his  provincial  synod.  He  was  a 
man  of  more  than  ordinary  vigour ;  he  had  been  the 
imperial  orator  at  Trent,  understood  fully  the  views  of  the 
council,  and  was  not  likely  to  underrate  either  their  im- 
portance or  their  authority.  Armed  with  the  Tridentine 
canons,  he  set  actively  to  work  and  instituted  a  very 
thorough  system  of  inquisitorial  visitations,  which  ought 
to  have  succeeded  if  success  were  possible.  Yet,  after  the 
lapse  of  thirteen  years,  in  a  special  mandate  issued  by  him 
in  1578  he  deplores  the  obstinate  blindness  of  many  of  his 
clergy,  who  still  believed,  with  the  heretics,  that  marriage 
was  not  incompatible  with  priesthood,  while  those  who  did 
not  marry  were  guilty  of  the  less  dangerous  error  of 
maintaining  concubines  and  children  on  the  revenues  of 
their  benefices.^ 

The  same  wilful  ignorance  apparently  existed  in  the 
diocese  of  Wurzburg,  for  Bishop  Julius,  in  1584,  found  it 
necessary,  in  his  episcopal  statutes,  to  discountenance 
clerical  matrimony  and  to  prove  its  nulHty  by  laboriously 
quoting  innumerable  canons  and  decretals  ;  and  he  even 
condescended  to  remind  his  priesthood  that  in  taking 
orders  they  had  willingly  and  knowingly  entered  into  an 
agreement  of  continence,  by  the  consequences  of  which 
they  must  be  prepared  to  abide.* 

1  Concil.  Salisburg.  XLVII.  (Dalham,  Cone.  Salisb.  p.  583.) 

2  Visitat.  Salisburg.  ann.  1616  Tit.  I.  cap.  vi.  (Hartzheim,  IX.  266.) 

3  Decret.  Reformat.  Pragens.  (Hartzheim,  VII.  53.) 

4  Statut.  Rural.  Julii  Wirceburg.  P.  iii.  c.  iv.  (Gropp  Script.  Rer.  Wirceburg.  I. 
471-4).  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  Bishop  Julius  attributes  the  prohibition  of 
marriage  to  the  Council  of  Nicsea.    After  describing  the  custom  of  the  Greek  Church, 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH       233 

A  provincial  synod  of  Gnesen,  of  which  the  date  is 
uncertain,  but  which  was  probably  held  in  1577,  deplored 
the  insane  audacity  displayed  by  ecclesiastics  in  marrying, 
and  threatened  them  with  the  Tridentine  anathema.^  This 
warning  appears  to  have  been  completely  disregarded,  for 
the  Bishop  of  Breslau,  a  suffragan  of  the  metropolis  of 
Gnesen,  in  opening  his  diocesan  synod  in  1580,  still  com- 
plained that  many  of  his  clergy  were  guilty  of  this 
perversity,  and  he  was  at  some  pains  to  disavow  any 
complicity  with  it,  or  any  connivance  at  the  licentiousness 
which  was  prevalent  among  the  unmarried.^  In  1591  the 
synod  of  Olmutz  asserted  that  many  clerks  in  holy  orders 
contracted  pretended  marriages,  and  were  not  ashamed 
of  the  families  growing  up  publicly  around  them,  while 
others  indulged  in  scandalous  concubinage  with  women, 
whom  they  styled  housekeepers  or  cooks.  In  endea- 
vouring to  put  an  end  to  this  state  of  affairs  the  synod 
manifested  its  estimation  of  the  morals  of  the  priesthood 
by  renewing  the  hideous  suggestions  which  we  have  seen 
in  the  tenth  and  twelfth  centuries,  for  pastors  were 
allowed  to  have  near  them  the  female  relatives  authorised 
by  the  Nicene  canons,  but,  in  view  of  the  assaults  of 
the  tempter,  were  prudently  advised  not  to  let  them 
reside  in  their  houses.^  The  disregard  of  the  Tridentine 
canon  continued,  and  as  late  as  1628,  at  the  synod  of 
Osnabruck,  the  orator  who  opened  the  proceedings  in- 
veighed in  the  vilest  terms  against  the  female  companions 
of  the  clergy,  who  not  only  occupied  the  position  of  wives, 
but  were  even  dignified  with  the  title.* 

he  proceeds,  "  Permissio  vero  et  consuetude  ilia  duravit  usque  ad  Niccenum  concilium, 
in  quo  generali  decreto  abrogata  est,  statutumque  ne  aliquis  habens  uxorem  con- 
secretur  sacerdos  " — a  falsification  which  is  equally  singular  whether  it  proceeded 
from  ignorance  or  fraud,  and  an  admission  that  celibacy  was  not  of  apostolic  origin 
which  was  rare  in  a  Catholic  prelate  of  that  period. 

1  Synod.  Gnesens.  c.  xxxiii.  (Hartzheim,  VII.  891.) 

3  Synod.  Wratislav.  ann.  1580  (Hartzheim,  VII.  890). 

3  Synod.  Olomucens.  ann.  1591  c.  xiii.  (Hartzheim,  VIII.  352.) 

4  Synod.  Osnabrug.  ann.  1628  (Hartzheim,  IX.  431).     As  usual,  a  distinction  is 


234  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

Ancillary  to  the  questions  of  clerical  marriage  and  con- 
cubinage was  that  of  the  provisions  made  for  the  benefit 
of  the  offspring  of  such  unions.  The  Council  of  Trent  had 
decreed  that  all  such  provisions  should  be  deemed  fraudu- 
lent, but,  in  spite  of  this,  the  transmission  of  ecclesiastical 
property  continued  as  before,  and  in  1571  Pius  V.  found 
it  necessary  to  supplement  the  conciliar  decree  with 
further  positive  legislation.  In  this  he  recognised  his  own 
Curia  as  the  source  of  much  of  the  evil  by  declaring  null 
and  void  all  dispensations  granted  for  such  purpose,  and 
annulling  all  faculties  for  granting  them.^  It  was  not 
only  the  need  of  preserving  the  possessions  of  the  Church  ; 
the  scandal  of  sacerdotal  families  required  repression,  and 
this  he  sought  to  accomplish,  in  1572,  by  another  decree 
pronouncing  such  children  incapable  of  receiving  even  the 
private  and  patrimonial  property  of  their  fathers.^  How 
soon  all  this  was  forgotten  is  indicated  by  the  synod  of 
Augsburg,  in  1610,  which  declared  that  it  would  enforce 
the  Tridentine  canon  prohibiting  the  illegitimate  sons  of 
priests  from  holding  preferment  in  their  fathers'  benefices, 
notwithstanding  what  dispensations  they  might  produce.^ 

Thus  the  movement  started  by  the  vigour  and  inflexible 
purpose  of  Pius  V.  had  at  last  succeeded  in  enforcing  the 
Tridentine  decree  which  prohibited  priestly  marriage,  and 
in  suppressing  the  almost  universal  demand  for  it  through- 
out Catholic  Christendom.  In  this  he  richly  earned  the 
gratitude  of  the  Ultramontanism  which  regards  the  Church 
as  a  hierarchical  organisation,  directed  as  much  to  temporal 

drawn  between  those  who  thus  formed  permanent  though  illicit  connections  and 
others  who  indulged  in  promiscuous  licence — "alii  vaga  dissoluti  lascivia,  tanquam 
equi  emissarii,  ad  incontinentissimum  quodque  scortum  aut  adulteram  adhinniunt 
trahuntque  ingentes  liberorum  spuriorum  greges.  Hsec  in  propatulo  sunt ;  quae  vero 
in  occulto  fiunt  ab  ipsis,  turpe  est  et  dicere." 

1  Pii  PP.  V.  Const.  Quae  ordini  (Bullar.  Roman.  II.  346). 

2  Pii  PP.  V.  Const,  ad  Romanum  (Bullar.  Roman.  II.  318). 

3  Synod.  Augustan,  ann.  1610,  P.  iii.  cap.  iii.  §  1  (Hartzheim,  IX.  58). 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH       235 

as  to  spiritual  ends.  This  preponderating  element  at  the 
Council  of  Trent,  if  we  may  believe  Fra  Paolo  Sarpi,  pre- 
dicted that,  if  priests  were  allowed  to  marry,  their  affections 
would  be  concentrated  on  family  and  country  instead  of 
on  the  Church ;  their  subjection  to  the  Holy  See  would 
be  diminished,  the  whole  structure  of  the  hierarchy  be 
destroyed,  and  the  Pope  himself  would  eventually  become 
a  simple  Bishop  of  Rome/  It  is  foreign  to  our  purpose  to 
discuss  whether  this  would  have  occurred,  and  whether  it 
would  have  been  a  misfortune  to  the  Church  and  to  the 
world,  or  whether,  if  marriage  had  been  permitted,  it 
might  have  resulted  in  a  reunion  of  Christian  believers. 
Its  denial,  at  all  events,  rendered  the  division  permanent, 
and  it  remains  for  us  to  see  whether  the  counter-Reforma- 
tion succeeded  in  removing  the  corruption  which  was 
admitted  to  have  been  one  of  the  efficient  causes  in  pro- 
moting the  success  of  the  Lutheran  revolt. 

Clear-sighted  prelates  were  not  wanting  who  pro- 
claimed that  the  same  causes  continued  to  operate  and  to 
produce  the  same  effect.  Anthony,  Archbishop  of  Prague, 
in  his  synod  of  1565,  took  occasion  to  declare  that  the 
misfortunes  of  the  Church  were  attributable  to  the  dis- 
soluteness of  the  clergy,  and  that  the  extirpation  of  heresy 
could  best  be  effected  by  reforming  the  depraved  morals 
and  filthy  Uves  of  ecclesiastics.^  At  the  Council  of 
Salzburg,  in  1569,  Christopher  Spandel,  in  the  closing 
address,  asked  the  assembled  prelates  what  title  was  more 
contemptible  or  more  odious  than  that  of  priest,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  hcence  in  which  the  clergy  as  a  body 
indulged.^  The  clergy  of  France,  assembled  at  Melun  in 
July  1579,  when  addressing  Henry  III.  with  a  request 
for  the  pubhcation  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  assured  him 
that  the  heresy  which  afflicted  Christendom  was  caused 

1  Sarpi,  Hist.  Con.  Trident.  Lib.  vil.  (Opere  II.  280.) 

2  Statut.  DicEces.  Pragens.  ann.  1565  (Hartzheim,  VII.  26). 

3  Synod.  Salisburg.  ann.  1569  (Hartzheim,  VII.  407). 


236  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

by  the  corruption  of  the  Church,  and  that  it  could  only 
be  eradicated  by  a  thorough  reformation.^  Though  the 
Inquisition  took  care  that  Spain  should  not  be  much 
troubled  by  heretics,  yet  the  synod  of  Orihuella,  in  1600, 
declared  that  the  concubinage  practised  by  ecclesiastics 
was  the  principal  source  of  popular  animosity  against  them.^ 
These  complaints  were  general.  In  1599,  Cuyck,  Bishop 
of  Ruremonde,  published  a  work  aimed  at  concubinary 
priests,  in  which  he  assured  them  that  they  and  their 
predecessors  were  the  cause  of  the  ruin  and  devastation  of 
the  Netherlands  for  the  last  thirty  years,  for  their  vices  had 
led  to  the  contempt  felt  for  the  clergy,  and  thus  to  the 
heresy  which  had  caused  the  civil  wars.  Those  who  kept 
their  vows  he  asserts  to  be  as  rare  as  the  grapes  that  can 
be  gleaned  after  the  vintage  or  the  olives  left  after  gather- 
ing the  crop  ;  but  the  only  remedy  he  can  suggest  is 
increased  vigilance  and  severity  on  the  part  of  the  prelates.^ 
Evidently  the  Tridentine  canons  had  thus  far  been  a 
failure.  In  1609,  at  the  synod  of  Constance,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Hamerer,  in  an  official  oration  to  the  assembled  pre- 
lates, deplored  the  continued  spread  of  heresy,  which  he 
boldly  told  them  was  caused  by  the  perpetually  increasing 
immorality  that  pervaded  all  classes  of  the  priesthood. 
The  Reformation  had  begun,  had  derived  its  strength,  and 
was  still  prospering  through  their  weakness,  which  ren- 
dered them  odious  to  the  people  and  made  the  Catholic 
religion  a  by- word  and  a  shame.*  In  1610,  the  Bishop  of 
Antwerp,  in  a  synodal  address,  agreed  with  Bishop  Cuyck 
in  attributing  the  evils  which  had  so  grievously  afflicted 
the  Church  of  Flanders  for  nearly  half  a  century  to  the 

1  Le  Plat,  VII.  238. 

2  Synod.  Oriolan.  ann.  1600  cap.  xxxviii.  (Aguirre,  VI.  457.) 

3  Henr.  Cuyckii  Speculum  Concubinariorum  Sacerdotum,  Monachorum  ac  Cleri- 
corum  ;  Coloniae,  1599. 

4  Synod.  Constant,  ann.  1609  (Hartzheim,  VIII.  838).  Another  orator,  Dr.  Mayer, 
S.  J.,  though  more  cautious  in  his  deductions,  was  equally  outspoken  in  his  denuncia- 
tions of  the  wickedness  of  the  clergy  (Ibid.  p.  831). 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        237 

same  cause,  and,  while  recounting  the  various  successive 
efforts  at  internal  reform  made  since  the  Council  of  Trent, 
he  pronounced  each  one  to  have  been  a  failure  in  conse- 
quence of  the  incurable  obstinacy  of  the  clergy/  Dam- 
houder,  a  celebrated  jurisconsult  of  Flanders,  whose 
unquestioned  piety  and  orthodoxy  gained  for  him  the 
confidence  of  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.,  does  not  hesitate 
to  speak  of  the  clergy  of  his  time  as  men  who  rarely  lived 
up  to  their  professions,  and  who  as  a  general  rule  were 
scoundrels  distinguished  for  their  indulgence  in  all  manner 
of  evil.^  In  a  similar  mood  the  Bishop  of  Bois-le-Duc,  in 
opening  his  synod  of  1612,  declared  that  the  scandalous 
lives  of  the  ecclesiastics  were  a  source  of  corruption  to  the 
laity  and  a  direct  encouragement  of  heresy.^  So,  in  1625, 
the  synod  of  Osnabruck  gave  as  its  reason  for  endeavour- 
ing to  enforce  the  Tridentine  canons  that  the  true  religion 
was  despised  on  account  of  the  depraved  morals  of  its 
ministers,  whose  crimes  were  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
the  stubbornness  of  the  heretics.  So  little  concealment 
of  their  frailty  was  thought  necessary  that  they  openly 
enriched  their  children  from  the  patrimony  of  the  Church, 
and  decked  their  concubines  with  ornaments  and  vest- 
ments taken  from  the  holy  images,  even  as  we  have  seen 
was  the  custom  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  tenth 
century.* 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  proved  a  more  effectual  bar  to 
the  spread  of  heresy  than  these  fruitless  efforts  to  cure  the 
incurable  malady  of  the  Church.  After  the  Peace  of 
Westphalia,  there  was  no  further  need  to  appeal  to  the 
dread  of  proselytising  Lutheranism  as  a  stimulus  to  virtue, 
but  still  the  same  process  of  reasoning  appears  in  exhorta- 

1  Synod  Antverp.  ann.  1610  (Hartzheim,  VIII.  979). 

2  Damhouder  Kerum  Crimin.  Praxis  cap.  xxxvii.  No.  25  (Antverp.  1601). 

3  Synod.  Boscodunens.  II.  ann.  1612  (Hartzheim,  IX.  200). 

*  Synod.  Osnabrug.  ann.  1625  cap.  v.,  x.  Hartzheim,  IX.  350.— Synod.  Osnabrug. 
ann.  1628  (Ibid.  p.  428). 


238  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

tions  to  regain  the  forfeited  respect  of  the  community. 
Thus,  in  1652,  the  Bishop  of  Munster  expressed  his  horror 
at  the  obstinacy  with  which,  in  spite  of  fines,  edicts,  and 
canons,  his  clergy  persisted  in  retaining  their  concubines, 
and  he  declared  that  the  discordance  between  the  pror 
fessions  and  the  practice  of  the  priesthood  rendered  them 
a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  people  and  destroyed  the 
authority  of  religion  itself;^  and  in  1662  the  synod  of 
Cologne  deplored  that  the  notorious  want  of  respect  felt 
for  the  ministers  of  Christ  was  the  direct  result  of  their 
own  immorahty.^  A  doctrine  even  sprang  up  to  the 
effect  that  it  was  not  requisite  to  force  a  concubinarian  to 
eject  his  companion  if  she  was  useful  to  him  in  his  house- 
keeping or  if  it  would  be  difficult  for  him  to  obtain  another 
servant ;  and  this  became  sufficiently  formidable  to  entitle 
it  to  a  place  among  the  errors  of  behef  formally  con- 
demned by  the  Roman  Inquisition  in  its  decree  of  March 
1666.' 

In  France  the  influence  of  the  Tridentine  canons  had 
been  equally  unsatisfactory.  At  a  royal  council  held  in 
1560,  which  resolved  upon  the  assembly  of  the  States  at 
Orleans,  Charles  de  Marillac,  Bishop  of  Vienne,  declared 
that  ecclesiastical  discipHne  was  almost  obsolete,  and  that 
no  previous  time  had  seen  scandals  so  frequent  or  the  life 
of  the  clergy  so  reprehensible.*  From  the  proceedings  of 
the  Huguenot  synod  of  Poitiers,  in  1560,  it  is  evident 
that  priests  not  infrequently  secretly  married  their  con- 
cubines, and,  when  the  woman  was  a  Calvinist,  her 
equivocal  position  became  a  matter  of  grave  consideration 
with  her  Church.^     The  only  result  of  the  Colloquy  of 

1  Synod.  Monasteriens.  ann.  1652  (Hartzheim,  IX.  786-7). 

2  Synod.  Colon,  ann.  1662  P.  III.  Tit.  i.  cap.  1  §  iii.  (Hartzheim,  IX.  1006.) 

3  Mag.  Bull.  Roman.  Ed.  Luxemb.  1742,  T.  VI.  App.  p.  2. 

4  Pierre  de  la  Place,  Estat.  de  Relig.  etc.     Liv.  iii, 

5  Quick,  Synod.  Gall.  Reform.  I.  18. 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        239 

Poissy,  in  1561,  was  that  Catherine  de  Medicis  prevailed 
upon  the  bishops  to  present  a  request  to  the  King  asking 
him  to  use  his  influence  with  the  Pope  to  concede  the 
marriage  of  priests  and  the  use  of  the  cup  by  the  laity. 
Means  were  found,  as  we  have  seen,  to  prevent  the  former 
of  these  demands  from  being  made,  while  the  latter,  when 
presented,  was  peremptorily  refused/  In  the  existing 
condition  of  affairs,  the  Council  of  Trent  could  not 
reasonably  be  expected  to  effect  much,  for,  as  the  orthodox 
Claude  d'Espence  informs  us,  the  French  prelates,  like  the 
Germans,  were  in  the  habit  of  collecting  the  "  cuUagium  " 
from  all  their  priests,  and  informing  those  who  did  not 
keep  concubines  that  they  might  do  so  if  they  liked,  but 
must  pay  the  licence-money  whether  or  no.^  In  1564, 
the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  not  long  after  his  return  from 
the  council,  held  a  provincial  synod  at  Rheims,  where  he 
contented  himself  with  declaring  that  the  ancient  canons 
enjoining  chastity  should  be  enforced.^  The  next  year, 
1565,  a  synod  held  at  Cambray  reduced  the  penalties  to  a 
minimum,  and  afforded  every  opportunity  for  purchasing 
immunity,  by  enacting  that  those  who  consorted  with 
loose  women,  and  who  remained  obdurate  to  warnings 
and  reprehension,  should  be  punished  at  the  pleasure  of 
the  officials.*  Thus  we  find  Pius  V.,  26  January,  1567, 
granting  to  Archbishop  Maximilian  full  power  to  correct 
the  depraved  morals  of  his  canons,  in  spite  of  the 
customary  oath  which  he  had  taken  not  to  interfere  with 
them.  Pius  further  seized  the  opportunity  to  urge  him 
and  his  suffragans  to  labour  strenuously  in  the  good  cause, 

1  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.  Liv.  CLVII.  Nos.  37-42. 

2  Chavard,  Le  C^libat  des  Prgtres,  p.  401. 

3  Concil.  Remens.  ann.  1564,  Stat.  xvii.  (Harduin.  X.  477.) 

4  Concil.  Camerac.  ann.  1565,  Ruhr.  vill.  c.  3.  At  this  council,  which  was  held 
in  June  1565,  the  Council  of  Trent  was  formally  adopted.  As  forming  part  of 
FlaTidre  franqaise,  Cambray  may  properly  be  considered  as  French,  though  Francis  I., 
by  the  treaty  of  Madrid  in  1526,  had  been  compelled  to  surrender  his  sovereignty, 
and  till  a  hundred  years  later  it  continued  under  Spanish  dominion. 


240  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

for  the  surest  means  of  extirpating  heresy  was  the  reform 
of  the  clerical  corruption  that  had  occasioned  it/  We 
may  assume  this  to  have  stimulated  the  council  held  the 
same  year  to  disregard  clerical  immunity  by  invoking  the 
aid  of  the  secular  arm  to  remove  the  concubines  of  its 
clergy^ — a  course  again  suggested  as  late  as  1631.^  The 
terms  in  which  Claude,  Bishop  of  Evreux,  at  his  synod  of 
1576,  announced  his  intention  of  taking  steps  to  eject 
those  who  for  the  future  should  persist  in  their  immor- 
ality show  not  only  that  such  measures  were  even  yet  an 
innovation,  but  also  indicate  httle  probability  of  their 
being  successful.*  The  Council  of  Rheims,  in  1583,  while 
proclaiming  that  the  Tridentine  canons  shall  be  enforced 
on  all  concubinary  priests,  manifests  a  reasonable  doubt  as 
to  the  amount  of  respect  which  they  will  receive  in 
threatening  that  those  who  are  contumacious  shall  be 
subdued  by  the  secular  arm.^  The  Council  of  Tours,  in 
the  same  year,  deplores  that  the  whole  ecclesiastical  body 
is  regarded  with  aversion  by  the  good  and  pious  on 
account  of  the  scandals  perpetrated  by  a  portion  of  them. 
To  cure  this  evil,  the  residence  of  suspected  women,  even 
when  connected  by  blood,  is  forbidden,  as  well  as  of  the 
children  acknowledged  to  be  sprung  from  such  unions, 
and  various  penalties  are  denounced  against  offenders.^ 
The  Council  of  Bordeaux,  in  1624,  earnestly  warns  the 
clergy  of  the  province  not  to  allow  their  sisters  and  nieces 
to  live  in  their  houses,  and  especially  not  to  sleep  in  the 
same  room  mth  them ;  ^  and  various  other  synods  held 
during  the  period  repeated  the  well-known  regulations  on 

1  Pii  V.  Epistolar.  Lib.  quinque,  Lib.  I.  Ep.  ix.  (Antverpae,  1640.) 

2  Concil.  Camerac.  ann.  1567  c.  iii.  (Hartzheim,  VII.  216.) 

3  Synod.  Camerac.  ann.  1631  Tit.  xviii.  c.  xiv.  (Ibid.  IX.  562.) 

4  Claudii  Episc.    Ebroicens.  Statut.   cap.  III.    §  1    (Migne's  Patrol.  Tom.   147, 
pp.  244-5). 

5  Concil.  Kemens.  ann.  1583  cap.  xviii.  §  5  (Harduin.  X.  1293). 

6  Concil.  Turon.  ann.  1583  cap.  xv.  (Ibid.  p.  1481.) 

7  Concil.  Burdigalens.  ann.  1624  cap.  xiii.  §  2  (Harduin.  XL  96). 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        241 

the  subject,  which  are  only  of  interest  as  showing  how 
httle  they  were  respected.^ 

Avignon  and  the  Constat  Venaissin,  the  portion  of 
modern  France  then  belonging  to  the  Holy  See,  were  not 
neglected  by  the  vigilance  of  Pius  V.  In  1569  we  find 
him  writing  to  the  Cardinals  of  Bourbon  and  Armagnac, 
his  legates  in  charge  of  the  territory,  and  also  to  the 
individual  bishops,  urging  them  to  reform  the  corrupt  and 
depraved  morals  of  clergy  and  laity,  to  which  the  growth 
of  heresy  was  largely  ascribable ;  the  clergy  especially 
were  to  be  looked  after  and  be  coerced  with  the  full 
severity  of  the  canons.^  The  usual  lack  of  success 
attended  this,  for  a  Council  held  in  Avignon  in  1594, 
declares  that  the  numerous  decrees  relative  to  the  morals 
and  habits  of  the  clergy  are  either  forgotten  or  neglected, 
and  then  proceeds,  as  was  customary,  to  forbid  the  residence 
of  suspected  women.^ 

No  one,  in  fact,  who  is  familiar  with  the  popular 
literature  of  France  during  that  period  can  avoid  the 
conviction  that  the  ecclesiastical  body  was  hopelessly 
infected  with  the  corruption  which,  emanating  from  the 
foulest  court  in  Christendom,  spread  its  contagion 
throughout  the  land.  If  Rabelais  and  Bonaventure  des 
Periers  reflect  the  depravity  which  was  universal  under 
Francis  I.,  Brantome,  Beroalde  de  Verville  and  Noel  du 
Fail  continue  the  record  of  infamy  under  Catherine  de 
Medicis  and  her  children.*    The  genealogy  of  sin  is  carried 

1  Synod.  Tornacens.  ann.  1574  Tit;  xii.  c.  5,  6,  7  (Hartzheim  VII.  780).— Synod. 
Audomarens.  ann.  1583  Tit.  xvi.  c.  2  (Ibid.  VII.  947).  Concil.  Burdigalens.  ann. 
1583  can.  xxi.  (Harduin.  X.  1360.) — Concil.  Bituricens.  ann.  1584  Tit.  xlii.  can.  1-4 
(Ibid.  X.  1503-4). — Concil.  Aquens.  ann.  1585  cap.  de  Vit.  et  Honestate  Cleric. 
(Ibid.  X.  1547.)    Concil.  Narbonnens.  ann.  1609  cap.  xli.  (Ibid.  XI.  96.) 

2  Pii  V.  Epistolae.  Lib.  ill.  Epist.  xxi. 

3  Concil.  Avenionens.  ann.  1594,  can,  xxxii.  (Harduin.  X.  1854.) 

4  Du  Fail,  whose  high  official  position  in  the  Parlement  of  Kennes  precludes  the 
supposition  of  any  tendency  to  Calvinism,  devotes  one  of  his  discourses  (Contes  et 
Discours  d'Eutrapel  No.  xx.)  to  the  evils  entailed  by  celibacy  on  the  Church  and  on 
society,  quoting  the  exclamation  of  Cardinal  Oontarini  to  Velly  the  French  Ambassa- 
cor,  "  0  quaB  mala  attulit  in  ecclesia  coelibatus  ille  I  "     It  is  true  that  such  stories  as 

VOL.  II.  Q 


242  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

on  by  Tallemant  des  R^aux,  Bussy-Rabutin,  and  the 
crowd  of  memoir  writers  who  flourished  in  the  Augustan 
age  of  French  Uterature.  These  show  us  how  often  the 
high  places  of  the  hierarchy  were  filled  with  men  to  whom 
the  very  name  of  virtue  was  a  jest,  and  who  could  not  be 
expected  to  enforce  on  their  subjects  the  continence  to 
which  they  themselves  made  no  pretension.  Yet  it  would 
be  unjust  not  to  keep  in  view  also  the  lofty  piety  of  such 
a  prelate  as  Fenelon,  or  the  austere  virtue  of  Antoine 
Arnauld  and  his  comrades  of  Port  Royal.  While  the 
Jesuits  and  so-called  moral  theologians  were  smoothing 
the  path  of  sin  by  the  casuistry  of  Probabilism,  there 
sprang  up  to  resist  them  the  Jansenistic  Rigorism,  which 
exercised  wide  influence  on  the  side  of  godliness,  in  spite 
of  unremitting  persecution  by  the  Holy  See. 

It  is  evident  from  all  this  that  the  standard  of  ecclesias- 
tical morals  had  not  been  raised  by  the  efforts  of  the 
Tridentine  fathers,  and  yet  a  study  of  the  records  of 
church  discipline  shows  that  with  the  increasing  decency 
and  refinement  of  society  during  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  the  open  and  cynical  manifestations 
of  licence  among  the  clergy  became  gradually  rarer.  It 
may  well  be  doubted,  nevertheless,  whether  their  lives 
were  in  reality  much  purer.  A  few  spasmodic  efforts 
were  made  to  enforce  the  Nicene  canon,  prohibiting  the 
residence  of  women,  but  they  were  utterly  fruitless,  and 
were  so  recognised  by  all  parties ;  and  the  energies  of  the 
arch-priests  and  bishops  were  directed  to  regulating  the 
character  of  the  hand-maidens,  who  were  admitted  to  be  a 
necessary  evil.  The  devices  employed  for  this  purpose 
were  varied,  and  repeated  with  a  frequency  which  shows 

•' Frater  Fecisti "  are  not  historical  documents,  yet  they  have  their  value  as  indi- 
cating the  drift  of  public  feeling  and  the  convictions  forced  upon  the  minds  of  the 
people  by  the  irregularities  of  the  clerical  profession.  The  same  lesson  is  taught 
by  Boccaccio,  Piers  Plowman,  Chaucer,  Poggio,  the  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles, 
and  all  the  other  records  of  the  interior  life  of  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries. 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH       243 

their  insufficiency ;  and  it  would  be  scarce  worth  our 
while  to  do  more  than  indicate  some  sources  of  reference 
for  the  curious  student  who  may  wish  to  follow  up  the 
reiteration  which  we  have  traced  already  through  so  many 
successive  centuries.^  Among  them,  however,  one  new 
feature  shows  itself,  which  indicates  the  growing  respect 
paid  to  the  appearance  of  decency — complaints  that  con- 
cubines are  kept  under  the  guise  of  sisters  and  nieces. 

That  the  monastic  orders  had  profited  more  than  the 
secular  clergy  by  the  Tridentine  reformation  may  well  be 
doubted.  Laurent  de  Peyrinnis,  one  of  the  heads  of  the 
Order  of  Minims,  in  1668,  issued  a  code  of  regulations  in 
which  he  showed  that  scandal  was  more  dreaded  than  sin 
when  he  promulgated  an  exemption  from  excommunica- 
tion in  favour  of  those  brethren  who,  when  about  to  yield 

1  LePlat,  Monument.  Concil.  Trident,  vii.  136. — Collect.  Synod.  Mechlin.  Tom. 
I.  pp.  39,  57. — Synod.  Mechlin,  ann.  1570  Tit.  xiv.  (Ibid.  I.  118.)— Synod.  Lovaniens, 
ann.  1574  (Ibid.  I.  191).— Synod.  Provin.  Mechlin,  ann.  1607  Tit.  xviil.  c.viii.  (Ibid. 
I.  395.)— Synod.  Dioeces.  Mechlin,  ann.  1607  Tit.  xvii.  c.  vi.  (Ibid.  II.  237.)— 
Congregat.  Archipresbyt.  ann.  1613  (Ibid.  II.  271). — Tertia  Oongregat.  Episc.  ann. 
1624  (Ibid.  I.  466).— Ibid.  I.  514. 

Synod.  Augustan,  ann.  1567  P.  in.  c.  ii.  (Hartzheim  VII.  182.) — Synod.  Con- 
stant, ann.  1567  P.  II.  Tit.  i.  c.  9  (Ibid.  VII.  541).— Synod.  Ruremond.  ann.  1570 
(Ibid.  VII.  653).— Synod.  Boscodunens.  ann.  1571  Tit.  xiv.  c.  ii.  (Ibid.  VII.  723.) 
—Synod.  Warmiens.  ann.  1577  c.  i.  (Ibid.  VII.  871.)— Synod.  Mettens.  ann.  1604 
c.  xlviii.,  liii.,  Ixii.  (Ibid.  X.  768-70.) — Synod.  Brixiens.  ann.  1603  De  discip.  cler. 
c.  xvii.  (Ibid.  VIII.  576.)— Synod.  Namurcens.  ann.  1604  Tit.  viii.  c.  vi.  (Ibid. 
VIII.  623.)— Synod.  Constant,  ann.  1609  P.  ii.  Tit.  xvii.  c.  7  (Ibid.  VIII.  906).— 
Synod.  Mettens.  ann.  1610  Tit.  xi.  c.  xi.  (Ibid.  VIII.  962.)— Synod.  Antverp.  ann. 
1610  Tit.  XVII.  c.  vi.  (Ibid.  VIII.  1003.)— Statut.  Visitat.  Salisburgens.  ann.  1616 
Tit.  I.  c.  vi.  (Ibid.  IX.  266.)-"Synod.  Iprens.  ann.  1629  c.  xx.  (Ibid.  IX.  496.)— 
Synod.  Namurcens.  ann.  1639  Tit.  xix.  c,  ix.,  x.  (Ibid.  IX.  592-3.) — Synod.  Audo- 
mar.  ann.  1640  Tit.  XIV.  c.  vii.  (Ibid.  X.  802.)— Synod.  Colon,  ann.  1651  P.  II. 
c.  ii.  §  1  (Ibid.  IX.  742).— Synod.  Hildesheim.  ann.  1652  (Ibid.  IX.  805-6).— 
Synod.  Colon,  ann.  1662  P.  ill.  Tit.  ii.  c.  1,  2,  3  (Ibid.  IX.  1008-11).— Statut. 
Synod.  Trevirens.  ann.  1678  c.  xi.  xii.,  xiii.,  xiv.  (Ibid.  X.  60.) — Statut.  Synod. 
Argentinens.  ann.  1687  De  clericis  addit.  i.  (Ibid.  X.  180.) — Synod.  Brugens.  ann. 
1693  Tit.  V.  §  2  (Ibid.  X.  202.)— Cod.  Canon.  Mettens.  ann.  1699  Tit.  X.  c.  xviii. 
(Ibid.  X.  245.)— Synod.  Bisuntin.  ann.  1707  Tit.  ii.  c.  xxv.  (Ibid.  X.  291.)— 
Synod.  Culmens.  et  Pomesan.  ann.  1745  c.  ix.  (Ibid.  X.  517.) 

Concil.  Toletan.  ann.  1565  Act.  ii.  cap.  xxii. ;  Act.  in.  cap.  xix.,  xxv.  (Aguirre 
V.  396,  405-6.)— Concil.  Valentin,  ann.  1565  Tit.  ll.  cap.  xviii.,  xix.  (Ibid.  425.)— 
Concil.  Toletan.  ann.  1582  Act.  III.  Decret.  xxxv.  (Ibid.  VI.  12.)— Concil.'  Tarra- 
conens.  ann.  1591  Lib.  I.  Tit.  viii.;  Lib.  III.  Tit.  ii.  (Ibid.  256,  271-3.)— Synod. 
Oriolan.  ann.  1600  cap.  xxxiii.  (Ibid.  456.) 


244  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

to  the  temptations  of  the  flesh,  or  to  commit  theft, 
prudently  laid  aside  the  monastic  habit.  ^  Apparently 
this  caution  was  exceptional  for  Chiericato  deplores  the 
constant  scandal  given  by  religious,  who  are  not  ashamed 
to  be  seen  entering  and  leaving  the  houses  of  public 
prostitutes.^  Another  celebrated  jurist  of  the  Order  of 
Minims  bears  testimony  to  the  demoralisation  of  his 
brethren  when  he  declares  that  if  the  severe  punishments 
provided  for  unchastity  by  the  statues  were  enforced 
they  would  result  in  the  destruction  of  all  the  religious 
congregations.^ 

That  the  awful  sacrifice  of  the  mass  should  be 
performed  by  a  priest  fresh  from  concubinary  pollution,  is 
a  sacrilege,  but  even  more  to  be  dreaded  would  be  the 
omission  of  the  function  which  would  reveal  his  weakness 
to  his  flock.  For  centuries  the  question  has  troubled  the 
Church,  and  it  has  been  forced  to  permit  the  sacrilege 
rather  than  to  risk  the  exposure.  The  Council  of  Cambrai, 
indeed,  devised  a  tolerably  effective  remedy,  about  the 
year  1300,  when  it  ordered  celebrants  to  confess  daily  to 
the  episcopal  penitentiaries,*  but  this  was  applicable  only 
to  the  cathedral  town  and  even  there  was  too  cumbrous 
to  be  enforced.  Aquinas  was  more  considerate  to  human 
frailty  when  he  asserted  that  if  the  sinful  priest  could  not 
confess  before  celebrating,   he  could  qualify  himself  by 

1  Batio  est  quia  tunc  non  dimittit  habitum  ut  periculose  vagetur,  sed  ut  com- 
modius  fornicetur,  vel  liberius  furetur. — Apud.  C.  Chabot,  Encyclopedie  Monastique 
p.  2-t  (Paris,  1827). 

2  Nihilominusfrequentissimumest,  etsiiinobservataetiaminpeccatumcarnis  .  .  . 
in  Keligiosis  qui  non  verentur  ingredi  domus  publicarum  meretricum  et  exire  ex 
ipsis  absque  rubare,  quamvis  videantur  ac  observentur  a'  transeuntibus  et  ab  aliis 
in  eodem  vico  habitantibns,  qui  omnes  gravissimum  scandalum  ultra  peccatum  carnis 
committunt  et  deturpant  bonum  nomen  suae  Ordinis. — Clericati  de  Virtute  Poeniten- 
tiae  Decisiones,  p.  215  (Venetiis,  1706). 

3  Spatharius,  Aurea  Methodus  corrigendi  regulares,  1625,  p.  57 — "atque  mea 
sententia,  in  totalem  ordinis  ruinam  et  destructionem  singularem  religionum " 
(Apud  Chabot.  op.  cit.  p.  95). 

*  Conoil.  Camerac.  ann.  1300-1310  (Hartzheim  IV.  65). 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH       245 

making  a  vow  to  confess/  The  Council  of  Trent 
prescribes  preliminary  confession  for  a  priest  conscious  of 
mortal  sin,  but  this  is  not  always  easy,  for  confession  is 
complicated  with  questions  of  jurisdiction  and  reserved 
sins,  and  it  adds  that  if  this  is  impossible,  he  must  confess 
subsequently  as  soon  as  practicable.^  Jansenist  rigour 
was  too  severe  to  permit  this  sacrilege,  but  even  it  had  to 
provide  for  frailty  and  it  offered  the  suggestion  that  the 
peccant  ministrant  should  scratch  his  thumb  with  a  knife, 
bind  up  his  hand  and  proclaim  himself  incapacitated.^ 
The  ordinary  practice,  however,  with  those  who  are 
scrupulous,  seems  to  be  to  perform  an  act  of  contrition  or 
to  make  a  hasty  confession  in  the  sacristy  before  going  to 
the  altar.* 

In  the  New  World  the  licentiousness  of  the  priesthood, 
as  might  be  expected,  began  to  vex  the  infant  church  as 
soon  as  it  was  organised  among  the  heathen.  Little  more 
than  half  a  century  had  passed  since  the  voyages  of 
Columbus,  when  Oviedo,  the  first  chronicler  of  the  New 
World,  speaks  of  the  licentiousness  of  the  clergy  as 
inviting  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish  Colonies,  even  as 
the  marriage  of  the  Greek  priests  had  been  punished  by 
their  subjection  under  the  Turks.^     The  earliest  synods 

1  S.  Th.  Aquinat.  Summae  Supplem.  Q.  VI.  Art.  5. 

2  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xiir.  De  Eucharistia,  cap  xiiii. 

3  De  Charmes,  Theol.  Universal.  Diss.  v.  cap.  vl.  Q.  5,  §  3. 

4  Jo.  Gersoni  Regulae  Morales. — Casus  Conscientise  Benedicti  P.P.  xiv.,  October 
1736  cas.  3. — Corella,  Praxis  Confessionalis.  P.  li.  Tract,  xii.  cap.  1,  n.  11. 

Miguel  Albert  alludes  to  a  case  in  which  a  fornicating  priest  was  convicted  of 
heresy  for  not  confessing  before  celebrating  mass,  and  alleging  that  the  virtue  of 
the  sacred  vestments  which  he  wore  effaced  all  sins. — Repertor.  Inquisitorum,  s.  v. 
Confessio  (Valentise,  1494). 

See  also  a  case  decided  in  Rome,  May  9,  1896,  and  reported  in  II  Consulento 
Ecdesiastico,  Vol.  I.,  p.  165,  and  another  decided  8  March,  1897,  in  which  a  priest 
committed  incest  with  his  sister,  whom  he  had  intoxicated  for  the  purpose,  and 
celebrated  mass  the  next  day  in  order  not  to  lose  a  handsome  fee  (Ibid.  Vol.  II. 
p.  160). 

S.  Alphonso  Liguori  (Theol.  Moral.  Lib.  vi.  n.  585)  suggests  a  device  for  eluding 
the  difficulty  of  reserved  cases. 

5  Oviedo  Valdes,  Las  Quinquagenas  de  la  Nobleza  de  Espana,  1.383  (Madrid,  1880). 


246  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

and  councils  which  were  held  contain  the  customary 
denunciations  of  concubinage  and  prohibitions  for  eccle- 
siastics to  keep  their  children  in  their  houses,  to  celebrate 
their  baptisms  and  nuptials,  and  to  be  assisted  by  them  in 
the  ministry  of  the  altar.  Many,  as  we  are  informed  by  the 
first  Council  of  Mexico,  held  in  1555,  brought  with  them 
from  Spain  their  concubines  under  the  guise  of  relatives,  i 
For  the  most  part,  however,  they  formed  connections  with 
the  natives. 

In  fact,  the  institution  of  slavery  and  the  subject  popu- 
lations among  whom  its  ministers  were  scattered  gave  rise 
to  fresh  problems,  which  the  Church  sought  perseveringly, 
but  vainly,  to  solve.  Thus,  in  New  Grenada,  before  the 
conquest  was  fairly  achieved.  Bishop  Barrios,  of  Santafe, 
held  his  first  synod,  in  1556,  and  there,  after  premising 
that  the  fruits  of  religion  among  the  Indians  depended 
upon  the  good  example  of  their  pastors,  he  proceeded  to 
prohibit  any  priest  stationed  in  an  Indian  town  from 
having  any  Indian  woman  residing  in  his  house  ;  his  food 
was  to  be  cooked  by  men,  or,  if  this  was  impossible,  his 
female  servant  must  be  a  married  woman,  residing  with 
her  husband  under  another  roof  ^ — a  provision  repeated  by 
the  synod  of  Lima  in  1585.^  A  curious  experiment  in 
dealing  with  the  troubles  arising  from  slavery  is  seen  in 
the  Mexican  canons,  which  directed  that  if  an  ecclesiastic 
had  children  by  his  slave,  the  ownership  of  the  woman 
was  to  be  transferred  to  the  Church  and  the  children  were 
to  be  set  free.  It  will  be  remembered  (vol.  i.  p.  206)  that 
in  1022  the  Church  insisted  upon  the  continued  servitude 

1  Concil.  Mexican.  I.  ann.  1555  cap.  Ivii. — The  first  and  second  Mexican  Councils 
are  not  contained  in  Aguirre's  collection,  but  were  printed,  together  with  the  third, 
by  Archbishop  Lorenzana,  in  two  folio  volumes,  Mexico,  1769.  The  Third  Council 
has  also  been  reprinted  in  Mexico,  in  1858,  as  a  manual  of  existing  local  ecclesi- 
astical law. 

2  Constituciones  Sinodales  de  Santafe,  1556  cap.  iv.  (Groot,  Hist.  Eccles.  y  Civil 
del  Nuevo  Reino  de  Granada,  T.  I.  Append,  ii.  p.  497.) 

3  Synod  Dioec.  Limens.  III.  ann.  1585  cap.  xi.,  Ixvii.  (Aguirre,  VI.  193,  198.) 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        247 

of  clerical  bastards  whose  mothers  were  serfs  of  the  Church  ; 
and  the  contrast  between  this  and  the  regulation  which 
proclaimed  the  freedom  of  the  children  as  a  punishment 
inflicted  upon  the  father  is  perhaps  the  sorriest  exhibit  that 
could  be  made  of  the  character  of  those  who  were  engaged 
in  spreading  the  teachings  of  Christ  among  the  heathen.^ 

AVhile  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  heroic  self- 
devotion  was  shown  in  the  efforts  made  to  convert  the 
new  subjects  of  Spain,  it  is  equally  unquestionable  that  a 
majority  of  the  ecclesiastics  who  sought  the  colonies  were 
men  of  evil  character.  The  councils  held  in  the  several 
provinces  deplore  the  bad  example  which  they  set  to  their 
newly  converted  flocks,  and  the  regulations  which  were 
issued  time  and  again  against  their  excesses  show  the 
impossibility  of  keeping  them  under  control.  In  Peru,  for 
instance,  when  in  1581  St.  Toribio  commenced  the  quarter 
of  a  century  of  labour  as  Archbishop  which  worthily  won 
for  him  the  canonisation  accorded  by  Benedict  XIII.  in 
1726,  two  councils  had  already  been  held  in  Lima,  one  in 
1552  and  the  other  in  1567,  which  had  essayed  a  reforma- 
tion of  morals.  He,  in  turn,  lost  no  time  in  summoning 
a  provincial  council,  which  assembled  in  1583,  the  decrees 
of  which,  in  their  denunciation  of  all  manner  of  vices, 
show  how  ineffectual  the  previous  efforts  had  been.  The 
clergy  were  not  disposed  to  submit  tamely  to  the  new 
restraints  which  Toribio  sought  to  impose,  and,  while  the 
active  resistance  which  some  of  them  raised  was  subdued, 
the  underhand  management  of  others  was  so  far  successful 
that  the  royal  assent  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Council 
was  delayed  till  1591.^  Notwithstanding  the  activity 
of  Toribio,  who,  between  1583  and  1604,  held  three 
provincial  councils  and   ten   diocesan  synods,  who  three 

1  Concil.  Mexican.  I.  ann.  1555  cap.  li. — Concil.  Mexican.  III.  ann.  1585  Lib.  v. 
Tit.  X.  §  8. 

2  Aguirre,  VI.  51,  55. — The  canons  of  the  council  directed  against  concubinage 
&c.  are  Act.  in.  c.  18,  19,  20,  23,  24  (Ibid.  pp.  40-41). 


248  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

times  personally  visited  every  portion  of  his  vast  arch- 
bishopric, and  who  repeatedly  ordered  his  vicars  to  send 
secret  reports  of  concubinary  and  dissolute  priests,  he  was 
obliged,  in  the  pro\dncial  council  of  1601,  to  content  him- 
self with  renewing  the  regulations  of  1583,  sorrowfully 
observing  that  they  had  recived  scant  obedience,  and  that 
consequently  the  corruption  and  abuses  prevalent  among 
the  clergy  deprived  them  of  usefulness  among  their  Indian 
parishioners.^  We  can  thus  readily  understand  the  grief 
with  which  the  honest  Fray  Gerdnimo  de  Mendieta,  a 
contemporary,  after  depicting  the  eager  docility  with  which 
the  natives  at  first  welcomed  Christianity,  contrasts  it  with 
the  hatred  which  sprang  up  for  the  very  name  of  Christian 
when  they  realised  the  hopeless  wretchedness  of  their 
position  under  their  new  taskmasters ;  and  the  Fray  does 
not  conceal  the  fact  that  this  was  partly  owing  to  the 
character  of  some  of  the  clergy,  while  the  better  ones  were 
disheartened  and  discharged  their  trusts  mechanically, 
without  expectation  of  accomplishing  good.^  This  con- 
dition of  morals  did  not  improve  with  time.  In  his 
official  report  of  1736,  the  Marques  del  Castel-Fuerte, 
Viceroy  of  Peru,  remarks  that  the  greater  portion  of  those 
of  Spanish  blood  born  in  the  colonies  embraced  an  eccle- 
siastical life,  as  offering  an  easier  and  more  assured  career 
than  any  other.  Surrounded  by  their  Indian  subjects,  the 
pastors  Hved  in  luxury  and  licence,  which  their  superiors 
did  Uttle  or  nothing  to  check.  In  1728  the  civil  power 
was  ordered  to  make  an  investigation  into  the  morals  of 
the  priesthood,  and  especially  to  designate  those  whose 
concubinage  was  open  and  notorious — an  invasion  of  the 
sacred  immunities  of  the  Church  which  provoked  a  storm 
against  the  secular  authorities,  although  only  an  exami- 

1  Synod  Dioec.  Limens.  III.  ann.  1585  cap.  xxxvi. — Synod.  VIII.  aun.  1594 
cap.  XXXVI. — Concil.  Provin.  Limens.  III.  ann.  1601  Act.  ii.  Decret.  iv.  (Aguirre, 
VI.  197-8,  436,  479.) 

2  Mendieta,  Historia  Eccles.  Indiana,  Lib.  iv.  cap.  xlvi.  (Mexico,  1870.) 


THE  POST-TRIDENTINE  CHURCH        249 

nation  was  proposed,  and  there  was  no  attempt  to  be 
made  of  conviction  or  punishment.^  There  is  therefore  no 
reason  to  question  the  truthfulness  of  the  description  by 
Don  Jorje  Juan  and  Don  Antonio  de  Ulloa,  in  an  official 
report  made  about  1740,  when  they  assert  that  the  clergy 
of  Peru,  both  secular  and  regular,  live  so  licentiously  and 
with  such  scandal  and  self-indulgence  that,  although  all 
men  have  their  weaknesses  and  human  nature  is  fragile  in 
Peru,  yet  it  seems  as  though  it  were  the  special  function 
of  these  ecclesiastics  to  exceed  all  the  rest  in  the  perverted 
habits  of  their  disorderly  lives — an  assertion  which  the 
writers  proceed  to  justify  by  abundant  details  of  the 
most  convincing  character.^ 

That  the  monastic  establishments  shared  in  the  general 
dissoluteness  we  may  fairly  conclude  when  we  see  the 
precautions  which  St.  Toribio  found  necessary  to  preserve 
the  purity  of  the  spouses  of  Christ.  Thus  one  regulation 
provides  that  no  ecclesiastic  shall  visit  a  nun  without  a 
written  permission,  to  be  granted  only  by  the  Archbishop 
himself,  or  his  Pro  visor ;  and  so  little  confidence  did  he 
feel  in  the  guardians  whom  he  himself  appointed,  that  he 
directs  that  the  official  visitors  who  inspected  the  nunneries 
should  not  enter  them  without  some  special  and  urgent 
reason.^  In  fact,  the  report  of  Juan  and  Ulloa,  declares 
that  the  regulars  exceed  the  seculars  in  their  disorders, 
which  are  so  public  and  notorious  as  to  fill  one  with 
horror. 

1  Memorias  de  los  Vireyes  del  Peru,  Lima,  1659,  T.  III.  pp.  63-70. 

2  Noticias  secretas  de  America,  Sacadas  a  Luz  por  Don  David  Barry,  p.  490 
(London,  1826). 

Jaan  and  Ulloa  were  distinguished  men  of  science,  sent  in  1735,  to  co-operate 
with  a  similar  party  from  France  in  the  measurement  'of  an  equatorial  arc  of  the 
earth's  surface.  They  carried  instructions  to  make  a  confidential  report  on  the 
resources,  condition  and  administration  of  the  colony,  in  fulfilment  of  which  they 
traversed  it  from  end  to  end.  Their  voluminous  report  lay  hidden  in  the  Spanish 
archives  until  unearthed  and  printed  by  Mr.  Barry. 

3  Synod.  Dicec.  Limens.  IIL  ann.  1585  cap.  xli. — V.  ann.  1588  cap.  ix. 
(AguirreVI.  198,  216.) 


250  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

A  curious  rule  adopted  by  the  first  Council  of  Mexico 
in  1555  shows  how  much  more  scandal  was  dreaded  than 
sin.  In  order,  as  it  says,  to  avert  danger  and  infamy  from 
the  clerical  order  and  from  married  women,  it  prohibits 
the  Fiscal,  or  prosecuting  officer,  from  taking  cognisance 
of  cases  of  adultery  committed  by  ecclesiastics,  unless  the 
husband  be  a  consenting  party,  or  the  adulterer  makes 
public  boast  of  it,  or  the  fact  is  so  notorious  that  it  cannot 
be  passed  over  in  silence  ;  and  even  when  action  thus  is 
not  to  be  avoided,  in  no  case  is  the  name  of  the  woman  to 
be  mentioned  in  the  proceedings.  The  Provisors,  how- 
ever, are  not  forbidden  to  take  notice  of  such  crimes,  but 
are  allowed  to  settle  them,  if  they  can,  with  all  due  dis- 
cretion.^ As  might  be  expected  these  regulations,  by 
giving  practical  immunity,  led  to  an  increase  in  crime, 
and  the  third  Council  of  Mexico  in  1585  tells  us  that 
many  of  the  clergy  indulged  in  it,  in  preference  to 
ordinary  concubinage,  in  the  confidence  that  they  would 
not  be  prosecuted ;  but  the  amended  rule  adopted  by 
the  Council  to  meet  this  trouble  differs  so  little  from 
its  predecessors,  that  we  may  reasonably  doubt  whether  it 
was  followed  by  any  diminution  in  the  evil.^  And  this, 
judging  from  Rivera's  notes  to  his  edition  of  1859,  is  the 
existing  state  of  ecclesiastical  law  in  Mexico,^  although 
the  Tridentine  canon  specially  orders  the  Episcopal 
Ordinaries  to  proceed  ex  officio  in  all  such  cases,  even  of 
laymen.* 

1  Concil.  Mexican.  I.  ann.  1555  cap.  Ixxxi. 

2  Concil.  Mexican.  III.  ann.  1585  Lib.  V.  Tit.  x.  §  7. 

3  Notes  57  and  229,  pp.  452,  549. 

4  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  XXIV.  De  Reform.  Matrim.  c.  viii. — It  requires  some 
artful  special  pleading  on  the  part  of  Rivera  and  of  the  authorities  on  whom 
he  relies  to  reconcile  this  Mexican  laxity  with  the  instructions  of  the  Council  of 
Trent. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

SOLICITATION 

The  Church  of  the  post-Tridentine  period  was  brought 
into  the  strongest  competition  with  the  Reform,  which 
had  carried  away  nearly  half  of  Europe  and  was  seriously 
threatening  to  secure  the  rest.  The  needs  of  the  counter- 
Reformation  rendered  obligatory  efforts  at  internal  puri- 
fication, which  had  been  superfluous  during  the  ages  of 
unquestioned  theocracy,  and  there  was  no  point  in  which 
this  was  more  imperative  than  in  the  relations  between  the 
celibate  priest  and  his  spiritual  daughters  in  the  sacrament 
of  penance.  The  power  of  the  confessional,  one  of  the 
most  effective  instrumentahties  invented  by  the  ingenuity 
of  man  for  enslaving  the  human  mind,  was  peculiarly  hable 
to  abuse  in  sexual  matters.  No  one  can  be  familiar  with 
the  hideous  suggestiveness  of  the  penitentials  without 
recognising  how  frequent  must  be  the  temptations  arising 
between  confessor  and  penitent,  while  their  respective 
relations  render  seduction  comparatively  easy,  and  un- 
speakably atrocious.^  To  deprive  such  relations  of  danger 
requires  the  confessor  to  be  gifted  with  rare  purity  and 
holiness,  and  when  these  functions  were  confided  to  men 
such  as  those  who  composed  the  sacerdotal  body,  as  we 
have  seen  it  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  the  result  was 
inevitable. 

The  scandals  of  the  confessional  were  no  new  source 

1  For  the  brutal  details  of  the  questions  which  the  confessor  was  required  to  ask 
of  his  penitents,  female  as  well  as  male,  see  Burchardi  Decretorum  Lib.  xix.  c.  v. 
I  dare  not  give  even  a  specimen. 


252  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

of  tribulation  to  the  Church  and  the  people.  No  sooner 
had  the  early  custom  of  public  and  lay  confession  tended 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  priesthood  than  it  was  found 
necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  dangers  thence  arising. 
The  first  Council  of  Toledo,  in  398,  forbids  any  familiarity 
between  the  virgins  dedicated  to  God  and  their  confessors.^ 
About  the  year  500,  Symmachus  calls  attention  to  the 
spiritual  affinity  contracted  between  the  confessor  and  his 
penitent,  rendering  the  latter  his  daughter ;  he  alludes  to 
Silvester  as  having  denounced  guilty  relations  between 
them,  and  proceeds  to  decree  not  only  deposition  in  such 
cases,  but  life-long  penitence.^  As  sacerdotal  confession 
gradually  became  customary,  a  decretal  was  forged — 
whether  to  give  additional  authority  to  the  practice,  or 
to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  confessors  the  necessity  of 
prudence — by  which  the  name  of  Celestin  I.  was  used 
for  a  regulation  confiscating  all  the  possessions  of  the 
female  delinquent  and  confining  her  in  a  monastery  for 
life,  while  the  seducer  was  warned  that  such  sin  with  his 
spiritual  daughter  amounted  to  a  grave  case  of  adultery, 
for  which  he  must  be  deposed  and  undergo  penance  for 
twelve  years,  provided,  always,  that  the  facts  had  become 
known  to  the  people,^  thus  indicating  that  scandal  rather 
than  sin  was  the  danger  most  dreaded. 

It  was  inevitable  that  this  trouble  should  continue,  as 
we  have  seen  it  do  throughout  the  whole  history  of  a  celi- 
bate priesthood.*  So  constantly  was  "  solicitation " — 
solicitatio  ad  turpice,  as  it  came  to  be  technically  called — 

1  Concil.  I.  Toletan.  ann.  398  can.  vi.  For  the  gradual  growth  of  confession 
and  its  conversion  from  public  to  auricular,  see  the  author's  *'  History  of  Auricular 
Confession  and  Indulgences,"  3  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1896.  Confession  to  the  priest 
was  not  made  obligatory  until  the  fourth  Council  of  Lateran,  in  1215-16. 

2  Gratian.  Cans.  xxx.  q.  i.  can.  8. — Whether  this  decretal  be  authentic  or  not 
there  is  significance  in  Gratian's  including  it  in  his  collection. 

3  Gratian.  Cans.  xxx.  q.  i.  can.  9,  10. — Although  long  practically  obsolete  these 
canons  are  quoted,  in  1611,  as  still  in  force  by  Jacobus  and  Graffiis,  '*  Decisionum 
aurearum  casuum  conscientijB,"  P.  II.  Lib.  I,  cap.  vi.  n.  53  (Venetiis,  1611). 

4  See  Vol.  I.,  passim,  especially  p.  435. 


SOLICITATION  253 

borne  in  mind  that  the  mediaeval  canonists  recognised  that 
a  parish  priest  known  to  be  addicted  to  it  forfeited  his 
jurisdiction  over  his  female  penitents,  who  were  at  liberty 
to  seek  another  confessor/  St.  Bonaventura,  indeed, 
declares  that  there  are  few  parish  priests  free  from  this 
or  from  other  defects  that  should  incapacitate  them.^ 
That  it  was  the  subject  of  frequent  and  indignant  repre- 
hension on  the  part  of  those  who  sought  to  elevate  and 
purify  the  church  we  may  well  believe.  Calixtus  II. 
freely  assumes  the  perdition  of  the  priest  who  thus  betrays 
the  sacred  confidence  reposed  in  him,  denouncing  him  as 
a  lion  devouring  sheep,  as  a  bear  attacking  a  traveller  who 
has  lost  his  way,  as  a  fowler  spreading  lures  for  birds  and 
attracting  them  with  sweet  sounds,  while  the  woman  he 
treats  not  as  a  partner  in  guilt,  but  as  an  unfortunate  who 
finds  destruction  where  she  is  seeking  salvation.^  It  is 
observable  here  that  the  fault  is  assumed  to  lie  exclusively 
with  the  confessor,  and  such  is  likewise  the  case  in  the 
eloquent  denunciations  of  Savonarola,  who  declares  that 
the  Italian  cities  are  full  of  these  wolves  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing, who  are  constantly  seeking  to  entice  the  innocent 
into  sin  by  all  the  arts  for  which  their  spiritual  director- 
ship affords  so  much  scope.*  For  this  there  was  virtual 
immunity.  Like  all  other  sins  it  was  made  a  source  of 
profit  to  the  curia,  which  offered  absolution  and  a  dispen- 
sation to  hold  benefices  for  the  moderate  price  of  thirty- 


1  S.  Th.  Aquinat,  SummEe  Supplem.  Q.  VIIT.  art.  4. — Astesani  Summae  Lib.  v. 
Tit.  xiii.  q.  2. — Summae  Sylvestrina  s.v.  Confessor  i.  ss.  10-11. 

Guido  de  Monteroquer,  however  (Manipulus  Curatorum,  P.  ii.  cap.  iii.  art.  9), 
says  that  when  snch  a  priest  refuses  to  grant  a  licence  to  confess  elsewhere,  or  there 
is  no  other  priest  accessible,  the  woman  must  confess  to  him,  after  prayer  to  God  to 
resist  his  importunities. 

2  S.  Bonaventura,  Quaere  Fratres  Minores  praedicant  (Opusc.  I.  405). 

3  Calixti  II.  Serm.  I.  de  S.  Jacob  (Migne's  Patrolog.  T.  163  p.  1390).— The 
genuineness  of  these  sermons  has  been  doubted,  but  they  are  unquestionably,  if  not 
by  Calixtus,  by  a  writer  nearly  contemporary. 

*  Perrens,  Jerome  Savonarola,  p.  71.  See  also  Cornelius  Agrippa,  De  Vanitate 
Scientiar.  c.  Ixiv. 


254  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

six  gros  tournois}  For  those  at  a  distance  from  Rome 
the  local  episcopal  courts  were  equally  lenient,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  case  of  Alonso  de  Valdelamar,  a  priest  of 
Almodovar,  tried  in  1535  by  Bias  Ortiz,  vicar-general  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Toledo.  The  charges  fully  proved 
against  him  embraced  the  seduction  of  two  of  his  female 
penitents  and  his  refusal  of  absolution  to  a  third  unless 
she  would  surrender  herself  to  him,  besides  a  miscellaneous 
assortment  of  crimes — theft,  blasphemy,  cheating  with 
bulls  of  indulgence,  charging  penitents  for  absolution  and 
frequenting  brothels.  For  all  this  he  was  sentenced  to  a 
fine  of  two  ducats  and  the  costs  and  fees  of  his  trial,  and 
to  thirty  days  seclusion  in  the  church  to  repent  of  his 
sins  and  fit  himself  for  celebrating  mass,  after  which  he 
was  free  to  resume  his  flagitious  career.^  The  regular 
Orders  seem  to  have  been  equally  benignant  with  their 
delinquents.  In  the  Mexican  case  of  Fray  Juan  de  Valdana, 
guardian  of  the  Franciscan  convent  of  Suchipita,  who 
made  no  secret  of  his  affairs  with  his  penitents,  it  was 
in  evidence,  on  his  trial  by  the  Inquisition  in  1583,  that 
when  remonstrated  with,  he  asked  what  could  his  prelates 
do  to  him  ?  it  was  only  a  dozen  strokes  of  the  discipline 
and  a  year's  suspension  from  his  guardianship.* 

The  Lutheran  revolt,  which  found  in  the  crime  euphe- 
mistically termed  Solicitation,  a  favourite  point  of  attack, 
wrought  a  change  in  the  view  taken  of  it.  The  reforming 
Bishop  of  Verona,  Matteo  Ghiberti  (died  in  1543),  decreed 
severe  temporal  punishments  for  all  attempts  on  the  virtue 
of  female  penitents,  culminating  in  deprivation  and  per- 
petual imprisonment  when  the  attempt  was  successful.* 
In  his  case  this  was  doubtless  prompted  by  sincere  con- 

1  Taxes  des  Parties  casuelles,  p.  79  (Lyou,  1564). 

2  Archivo  hist6rico  nacional  de  Espana,  Inquisicion   de  Toledo,  Legajo  233, 
n.  100. 

3  MSS.  of  David  Fergusson,  Esq. 

4  Salzedo,  Practica  criminalis  canonica,  p.  276  (Compluti,  1587). 


SOLICITATION  255 

viction  of  the  iniquity  of  the  offence,  but  even  those  who 
thought  Hghtly  of  it  recognised  that  the  time  had  passed 
for  its  condonation.  Bernal  Diaz  de  Lugo,  in  1543, 
intimated  that  improper  relations  between  confessor  and 
penitent  are  not  much  worse  than  ordinary  concubinage, 
but  that  when  they  become  pubUcly  known  they  should 
be  visited  with  deprivation  and  imprisonment,  seeing  that 
notoriety  tends  to  prevent  men  from  allowing  their  wives 
and  daughters  to  confess  and  exposes  the  sacrament  of 
penitence  to  heretical  assault/  In  the  same  spirit,  Arch- 
bishop Carranza  of  Toledo,  in  1558,  tells  us  that  the  enemy 
took  full  advantage  of  this  weak  spot  in  the  line  of  defence.^ 
As  the  Council  of  Trent  assumed  that  God  would  not 
deny  the  gift  of  chastity  to  a  celibate  priesthood,  it  could 
scarce  refer  to  such  a  matter,  even  if  the  dread  of  scandal 
arising  from  any  allusion  to  it  had  not  imposed  silence, 
and  it  adopted  no  provisions  to  lessen  the  evil.  About 
that  time,  however,  a  preventive  effort  was  commenced 
by  the  invention  of  the  confessional.  Hitherto  the  priest 
had  heard  confessions  in  the  open,  with  the  penitent  at 
his  knees  or  seated  by  his  side,  which  gave  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  temptation  and  solicitation.  To  remedy  this 
the  confessional  was  gradually  evolved — a  box  in  which 
the  confessor  sits  while  the  penitent  outside  pours  the 
tale  of  his  sin  through  a  grille,  neither  being  visible  to  the 
other.  The  earliest  allusion  to  such  a  contrivance  that  I 
have  met  occurs  in  a  memorial  to  Charles  V.,  by  Siliceo, 
Archbishop  of  Toledo,  in  1547.^  In  1565  a  Council  of 
Valencia  ordered  its  use,  especially  for  the  confession  of 
women,  and  between  1565  and  1575  S.  Carlo  Borromeo 
introduced  it  in  his  province  of  Milan,  while  the  Roman 

1  Bern.    Diaz    de  Luco,   Practica  criminalis  canonica,   cap.  75,  76  (Venetiis, 
1543). 

2  Carrauza  Commentarius  sobre  el  Catechismo,  Tercero  Sacramento,  cap.  vii 

3  Burriel,  Vida  de  los  Arzobispus  de  Toledo  (Biblioteca   nacional  de    Espaila 
seccion  de  MSS.  Ff.  194,  fol.  9). 


256  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Ritual  of  1614  prescribes  its  employment  in  all  churches.^ 
The  command  was  obeyed  but  slackly,  for  the  innovation 
had  to  win  its  way  against  the  pronounced  opposition  of 
the  priesthood,  who  objected  to  this  seclusion  from  their 
penitents.  In  Spain  we  find  the  Inquisition,  between  1710 
and  1720,  busy  in  endeavouring  to  enforce  the  use  of  the 
confessional  and,  as  late  as  1781,  it  issued  a  decree  to  be 
printed  and  sent  to  all  parish  priests  and  superiors  of 
convents  who  were  to  post  it  in  their  sacristies.  In  this 
it  alludes  to  its  previous  repeated  orders  and  its  sorrow  at 
the  evils  arising  from  their  non-observance  or  from  the 
devices  used  to  elude  them,  of  which  it  gives  a  curious 
enumeration.^ 

A  drawback  to  the  advantages  of  the  confessional  was 
the  opportunity  which  it  afforded  for  laymen  to  ensconce 
themselves  and  hear  confessions  of  women,  whether  from 
jealousy  or  to  gratify  prurient  instincts,  or  because  it 
enabled  them  to  ask  indecent  questions.  Such  cases  were 
not  uncommon,  and  though  the  offenders  were  not  liable 
to  prosecution  for  solicitation,  they  were  held  subject  to 
the  Inquisition  for  suspicion  of  heresy.  If  the  pretended 
confessor,  however,  ventured  to  administer  absolution  he 
came  under  the  savage  decrees  of  Paul  IV.,  Gregory  XIII., 
and  Urban  VIII.,  which  prescribed  burning  alive  for  such 
sacrilege,  although  in  Spain  the  Inquisition  humanely 
modified  this  to  service  in  the  galleys.^ 

Mechanical  devices,  however,  went  but  a  little  way 
to  cure  an  evil  so  widespread  and  so  persistent.     If  the 

1  Concil.  Valentin,  ann,  1565,  Tit.  II.  cap.  vii.  (Aguirre  V.  417.)— C.  Mediolanens 
I.  ann.  1565  P.  i.  cap.  vi.  (Harduin.  X.  653.)— C.  Provin.  Mediolanens  IV.  ann.  1576 
(Acta  Eccles.  Mediolanens,  I.  146). — Rituale  Roman.  Tit.  iii.  cap.  i. 

2  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Sala  39,  Legajo  4,  fol.  34,  55,  81. — Archive 
historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  9,  n.  2,  fol.  236  ;  Cartas  del 
Consejo,  Legajo  16,  n.  6,  fol.  9. 

3  Cozza,  Dubia  selecta  circa  Solicitationem,  Dub.  xxxviil.  (Lovanii,  1760.) — 
Trimarchi  de  Confessore  abutente  Sacram.  Poenitentiae,  Tract,  unicus,  p.  147 
(Genuoe,  1636).— Bullar,  Roman.  XL  415;  III.  142;  IV.  144.— Archive  historico 
nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  299,  fol.  80. 


SOLICITATION  257 

mouths  of  mocking  heretics  were  to  be  closed,  some 
efficacious  method  must  be  found  for  the  discovery  and 
punishment  of  offenders.  Yet  this  was  surrounded  with 
difficulties.  The  crime  was  secret  and  known  only  to  the 
confessor  and  penitent,  and  the  latter,  whether  she  yielded 
or  not,  was  deterred  from  volunteering  a  complaint  by  the 
notoriety  which  accompanied  it,  compromising  her  with 
husband  or  father,  to  say  nothing  of  the  dangerous 
enmity  which  she  would  excite.  Strictly  speaking,  such 
matters  were  not  covered  by  the  seal  of  the  confessional, 
but  she  could  scarce  know  this  in  the  face  of  assertions 
freely  made  to  the  contrary.^  The  spiritual  courts,  more- 
over, which  held  exclusive  jurisdiction,  were  not,  as  we 
have  seen,  disposed  to  treat  the  offender  harshly,  and  a 
not  unnatural  esprit  de  corps  would  lead  them  to  reject 
accusations  which  could  not  be  supported  by  witnesses 
and  were  so  easily  discredited.  Then,  beyond  all  else, 
was  the  ever-present  dread  of  scandal  to  be  aroused 
through  the  publicity  of  open  trials,  with  the  consequence 
of  rendering  confession  odious  and  of  affording  comfort  to 
the  heretic.  Thus  the  crime,  although  pecuHarly  heinous, 
was  almost  assured  of  impunity. 

Yet  there  was  in  Spain  a  tribunal  which,  by  its 
impenetrable  secrecy,  could  avert  scandal  and  by  its 
special  procedure  could  hope  to  procure  convictions. 
This  was  the  Inquisition,  and,  though  its  Apostolic 
jurisdiction  was  confined  to  heresy,  yet  heresy  was  an 
elastic  term  which,  like  charity,  could  be  made  to  cover 
a  multitude  of  sins.  Pedro  Guerrero,  the  reforming 
Archbishop  of  Granada,  chanced  to  represent  to  Paul  IV. 
the  frequency  of  the  crime  and  the  necessity  of  some  more 
efficacious  means  of  repression.^  Whether  or  not  he 
directly  suggested  the   interpellation  of  the   Inquisition 

1  Rodriguez,  Nuova  Somma  de'  Casi  de  Coscienza,  P.  i.  cap.  53. 

2  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  939,  fol.  374. 
VOL.  II.  R 


258  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

does  not  appear,  but  Paul  resolved  on  tentatively  trying 
the  experiment,  and,  on  18  February,  1559,  he  ad- 
dressed to  the  Inquisitors  of  Granada  a  brief  in  which 
he  assumed  that  confessors  who  could  so  abuse  their 
functions  must  hold  unorthodox  views  as  to  the  sacrament 
of  penitence,  rendering  them  suspect  of  heresy  and  sub- 
jecting them  to  the  Holy  Office.  The  inquisitors  were 
thus  authorised  to  prosecute  such  offenders  and  punish 
them  at  discretion,  even  to  "  relaying  "  them  to  the  secular 
area  for  burning.  As  the  case  was  heretical,  the  exemp- 
tions of  the  Regular  Orders  were  withdrawn,  and  they 
were  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Inquisition.^ 

We  have  no  records  to  inform  us  what  was  the  result 
of  this  in  Granada,  but  presumably  it  sufficed  to  indicate 
the  extent  of  the  evil  and  the  increased  efficacy  of  the  new 
method  for  its  discovery  and  punishment.  Accordingly, 
Pius  IV.,  by  a  bull  of  14  April,  1561,  addressed  to  Valdes, 
the  inquisitor-general,  empowered  the  Inquisition,  through- 
out the  Spanish  dominions,  to  investigate  and  punish  all 
confessors  who  solicited  women  in  the  act  of  confession, 
even  to  the  extent  of  degrading  and  relaying  them  to  the 
secular  arm  for  punishment  at  its  discretion.  As  before, 
all  exemptions  of  the  monastic  Orders  were  withdrawn.^ 

The  Inquisition  was  nothing  loath  to  exercise  this  new 
power,  and,  to   render  it  effisctive,  in  the  next  annual 

1  Bulario  de  la  Orden  de  Santiago,  Libro  III.  fol.  322  (Archivo  hist,  nacional). 
The  theologians  did  not  find  it  easy  to  explain  the  "  suspicion  of  heresy  "  inferred 

in  solicitation,  and  constructed  various  theories  to  elucidate  it. — Alberghirri, 
Manuale  Qualificatorum,  cap.  xxxi.  §  2,  n.  1. 

How  nebulous  was  the  subject  appears  from  the  fact  that,  as  we  shall  see,  in 
Italy  the  suspicion  was  held  to  be  "  vehement,"  and  in  Spain  to  be  "  light  " — a  dis- 
tinction of  importance  in  inquisitorial  procedure,  as  the  former  entailed  relaxation, 
or  burning,  in  case  of  relapse. 

2  Pii  PP.  IV.  Bull.  Cum  sicut  nuper  (Bullar.  Eoman.  II.  48). 

The  definition  of  the  crime  in  this  bull,  on  which  a  good  deal  subsequently 
hinged,  was  rather  vague.  It  alludes  to  the  priests  who  "sacramento  pcenitentiae  in 
actu  audiendi  coufessiones  abutantur,"  and  describes  their  offence  "  mulieres 
videlicet  poenitentes  ad  actus  inhonestos  dum  earum  audiunt  conf essiones,  alliciendo 
et  provocando  seu  allicere  et  provocare  tentando." 


SOLICITATION  259 

publication  of  what  was  known  as  the  Edict  of  Faith, 
soHcitation  was  included  among  the  offences  which  every 
one  having  knowledge  was  required  to  denounce  to  the 
Holy  Office.^     As  this  edict  was  solemnly  pubhshed  in 
the  churches  on  a  feast-day,  at  which  the  whole  population 
was  summoned  to  attend,  it  was  a  most  effective  means  of 
acquainting  the  people  with  the  new  legislation  and  of 
inviting  information    from    every   source.     Naturally  it 
produced  a  sensation,  although    this   has   been  absurdly 
exaggerated  by  hostile  writers."     This  bold  abandonment 
of  the  traditional  policy  of  the   Church   to    cover    such 
offences  with  the  deepest  silence  evoked  opposition  which 
finds  expression  in  a  memorial  presented  to  the  Inquisition. 
This  commences  by  deploring  the  crime  which  converts 
the  sacrament  into  a  snare  for  the  ruin  of  souls  ;  but,  evil 
as  is  this,  the  evils  of  publicity  are  greater.     The  crime 
has  always   existed,  for  men   are   men    and  women  are 
women,  but  the  Church  has  never  before  attempted  so 
novel  a  cure.     It  has  always  been  the  policy  to  conceal 
the  offences  of  the  clergy  and  not  to  risk  the  diminution 
of  the  reverence  due  to  them.     Scandal  is  the  very  thing 
to  be  avoided ;  the  authority  of  the  priesthood  depends 
upon  popular  estimation,  which  should  not  be  imperilled. 
To  proclaim  to  the  world  that  the  confessional  is  thus 
abused  is  to  deter  people  from  seeking  it ;   fathers  and 
husbands  will  prevent  their  women  from  confessing,  respect 
for  the  sacrament  will  be  destroyed  and  Christianity  will 
be  overthrown.     Besides,  it  is  usually  the  women  who  are 

1  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  939,  fol.  107. 

2  Gonzdlez  de  Montes  relates  that  when  the  edict  was  published  in  Seville  in 
1563.  it  brought  to  the  Inquisition  such  a  crowd  of  accusing  women  that  twenty 
secretaries  were  unable  to  take  down  the  depositions  within  the  allotted  term  of 
thirty  days,  and  the  time  had  to  be  exteoded  to  four  months,  causing  finally  so  great 
a  popular  ferment,  and  implicating  so  large  a  portion  of  the  clergy,  that  the  attempt 
had  to  be  abandoned. — Reg.  Gonsalvii  Montani,  Inquisitionis  Hispan.  Artes  aliquot 
detectas,  pp.  184  sqq.  (Heidelbergae,  1567.) 

See  also  Cipriano  de  Valera's  account  of  the  trouble  in  Seville.— Los  dosTratados, 
p.  271  (Reformistas  antiques  Espanoles;. 


260  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  tempters,  and,  when  their  advances  are  repelled,  they 
will  bring  false  charges  to  ruin  the  innocent.  Moreover, 
the  comfort  is  to  be  considered  which  it  will  bring  to  the 
heretics,  justifying  their  slanders  on  the  morals  of  priests 
and  friars.  Altogether  the  document,  which  is  not  without 
learning,  is  a  barefaced  admission  that  morals  and  religion 
have  nothing  in  common,  and  that  the  salvation  of  souls 
is  of  small  account  in  comparison  with  the  material 
interests  of  the  Church.^ 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  how  pressure  of  this  kind  in- 
creased ;  the  Inquisition  in  time  yielded,  and,  on  22  May, 
1571,  it  instructed  the  tribunals  that  solicitation  was  no 
longer  to  be  included  in  the  edict,  on  account  of  the  evils 
which  it  caused.  The  inquisitors  were  told  to  devise  such 
other  means  as  they  could  and  to  notify  prelates  to  instruct 
confessors  that,  when  penitents  confessed  to  having  been 
sohcited,  they  must  be  admonished  to  denounce  the 
offenders  to  the  Holy  Office.  The  result  of  this  was  not 
satisfactory  after  a  few  years'  trial,  and,  on  2  March,  1576, 
an  edict  to  be  published  in  future  was  sent  to  the  tribunals 
containing  the  crime  of  sohcitation.  The  reason  given  is 
its  great  increase,  and  the  inquisitors  are  taken  to  task  for 
not  acting  upon  the  denunciations  which  they  received.^ 
This  remained  the  settled  policy  of  the  Inquisition,  and 
all  who  knew,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  such  cases,  were 
required  to  denounce  them  under  pain  of  major  excom- 
munication. 

The  chief  sufferers  under  this  new  dispensation  were 
the  Regular  Orders,  for  not  only  was  the  business  of  con- 
fession largely  in  their  hands,  but  the  temptation  to  abuse 
it  was  greater  than  among  the  secular  clergy  who  had 
fuller  opportunities  for  less  dangerous  indulgence.  The 
Inquisition  moreover  was  resolute  in  enforcing  its  jurisdic- 

1  Biblioteca  nacional  de  Espana,  Seccion  de  MSS.  S.  294,  fol.  216. 

2  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  1465,  fol.  16. 


SOLICITATION  261 

tion  over  them  and,  when  two  Jesuit  fathers,  Sebastian 
Briviesca  and  Cristobal  Trugillo,  who  were  guilty  of  the 
offence,  were  quietly  conveyed  out  of  Spain,  it  prosecuted 
and  imprisoned,  in  1587,  Francisco  Marcen,  the  Provincial 
of  Castile,  with  fathers  Francisco  Labata  and  Juan  LcSpez, 
for  infraction  of  the  edict  commanding  all  cases  to  be 
reported  to  it/  Jesuit  influence  was  powerful  in  Rome ; 
Sixtus  V.  promptly  evoked  their  cases  to  himself  and, 
when  the  Inquisition  demurred,  he  threatened  Inquisi- 
tor-general Quiroga  with  deprivation  of  his  office  and 
cardinalate,  which  brought  submission  to  his  mandate.^ 
Encouraged  by  this,  the  Jesuits  laboured  strenuously  to 
obtain  exemption  for  all  the  religious  Orders,  but  the 
whole  influence  of  Spain  was  brought  to  bear  and,  after  a 
prolonged  struggle,  the  Congregation  of  the  Universal 
Inquisition,  in  the  presence  of  Clement  VIII,  issued  a 
decree,  3  December,  1692,  declaring  that  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  was  exclusive  and  that  the 
superiors  of  the  regulars  could  not  exercise  it.  This  was 
confirmed,  in  1605,  by  Paul  V.  in  a  general  constitution,  re- 
voking the  jurisdiction  of  superiors  in  all  cases  pertaining  to 
the  Inquisition,  and  the  question  was  permanently  settled.^ 

Although  Portugal  had  been  added  to  the  Spanish 
crown  in  1580,  the  separate  organisation  of  its  Inquisition 
had  been  preserved  and  it  was  not  until  1608  that  Paul  V. 
extended  to  it  jurisdiction  over  solicitation  in  the  same 
terms  as  those  granted  to  the  Spanish  tribunals.*  That 
the  Roman  Inquisition  should  exercise  the  same  power 
may  be  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course. 

In  all  these  decrees  the  definition  of  the  crime,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  so  loosely  phrased  that  there  was  little 

1  Vatican  Library,  MSS.  Ottobonian.  Lat.  495. 

2  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Graein  y  Justicia,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  621,  fol.  139. 

3  Bulario  de  la  Ordui  de  Santiago,  Lib.  iv.  fol.  109,  111.— Archivo  de  Alcald  de 
Herrares,  Hacienda,  Legajo  1049. 

4  Pauli  PP.    V.   Bull.    Cum  sicut  nu;per,    16    September,    1648   (Trimarchi,   op. 
cit.  p.  7). 


262  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

difficulty  in  evading  the  letter  of  the  law,  for  in  practice  it 
was  construed  that  technical  solicitation  was  confined  to 
women  and  that  it  must  be  committed  during  the  very 
act  of  confession.  As  early  as  1577  the  Supreme  Council 
of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  ruled  that  there  was  no  penalty 
for  soliciting  penitents  in  the  place  assigned  for  confession 
if  there  was  no  confession,  and  soon  afterwards  that,  if  the 
confessor  told  the  penitent  that  he  did  not  wish  to  confess 
her,  he  was  not  to  be  prosecuted  for  soliciting  her.^  All 
this  opened  the  door  to  so  many  evasions  that  the  effective- 
ness of  the  bulls  was  seriously  crippled.  The  churches 
were  for  the  most  part  deserted,  the  attitude  of  penitent 
and  confessor  would  disarm  the  suspicion  of  any  one  who 
chanced  to  observe  them  and  amorous  endearments  and 
even  incredible  indecencies  might  easily  be  indulged 
in  so  long  as  there  was  no  actual  sacramental  confession, 
as  is  shown  by  frequent  and  flagrant  details  in  the  trials. 
The  Roman  Inquisition  sought  to  check  these  abuses  by 
subjecting  them  to  the  Holy  Office,  in  decrees  of  10  July, 
1614  and  6  February,  1619,^  but  these  decrees  seem  not  to 
have  been  accepted  in  Spain,  for  de  Sausa,  in  1623,  repeats 
the  assertion  that  there  must  be  actual  confession  and  that 
the  opposite  opinion  is  destitute  of  all  probability.  In 
this  he  is  supported  by  an  experienced  inquisitor,  about 
the  same  time,  who  says  that  when  there  is  an  assignation 
and  only  an  external  appearance  of  confession  there  is  no 
sacrament  and  therefore  no  sacrilege.^ 

1  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  1465,  fol.  16. — MSS.  of  National 
Library  of  Lima,  Protocol©  223,  Expediente  5270. — "Confesores  que  con  intento  de 
solicitar  d  sur  bijas  de  confesion  dicen  que  no  las  quieren  confesar,  se  puide  dejar  de 
proceder  contra  ellas." 

2  Tremarchi,  op,  cit.  pp.  10,  11. 

3  Ant.  de  Sousa,  Opusculum  circa  Constit.  PauliV,  Tit.  1,  cap.  19  (Ulyssip.  1623). 
Biblioteca  nacional  de  Espaiia,  Seccion  di  MSS.  B.  159,  fol.  159. 

The  Roman  Inquisition,  by  decree  of  24  November,  1612,  extended  the  operation 
of  the  bulls  to  the  solicitation  of  males,  which  was  accepted  in  Spain  and  announced* 
to  the  tribunals,  8  May,  1613. — Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,   Legajo  1465, 
fol.  16. 


SOLICITATION  263 

Another  and  even  more  dangerous  evasion  was  evolved 
from  the  words  of  the  bills,  implying  that  solicitation  must 
be  in  the  act  of  confession.  Probabilism  and  casuistry  were 
developing  rapidly  and  ingenious  moralists  were  busy  in 
demonstrating  how  all  the  sanctions  of  the  moral  law 
could  be  eluded.  It  was  explained  that  if  the  confessor 
should  make  his  advances  before  confession  actually  com- 
menced, or  wait  until  after  it  was  concluded  and  absolution 
given,  there  would  be  no  irreverence  to  the  sacrament  and 
consequently  no  suspicion  of  heresy  for  the  Inquisition  to 
punish.  By  no  means  all  authorities  assented  to  this,  but 
it  was  defended  by  enough  to  render  it  probable  and  con- 
sequently safe  in  practice.^  Then  the  question  as  to  what 
acts  and  words  amounted  to  solicitation  opened  a  wide 
field  for  the  dialectics  of  the  casuists.  The  rule  that  what- 
ever a  priest  does  is  to  be  interpreted  favourably — that  if 
he  embraces  a  woman  it  is  to  be  held  that  he  is  blessing 
her — was  invoked  to  prove  that  winks  and  nods  and 
praises  of  her  beauty  were  not  to  be  regarded  as  tempting 
her  to  evil.  The  more  rigid  moralists  asserted  that  such 
acts  were  foreign  to  the  sacrament  and  could  only  be  con- 
strued as  opening  the  way  to  further  advances,  while 
others  held  that  unless  the  acts  amounted  to  mortal  sin 
they  did  not  come  within  the  papal  bulls — that  to  tell  the 
penitent  that  she  was  pretty  and  cultivate  her  friendship 
so  as  to  be  invited  to  her  house  might  be  imprudent  but 
was  not  a  mortal  sin.^  There  was  another  question  on 
which  opinions  were  divided — whether  a  priest  acting  in 
the  confessional  as  a  pimp  for  the  benefit  of  another,  or 
urging  the  penitent  to  serve  as  a  procuress  for  him,  came 
under  the  definitions  of  the  bulls. ^ 

1  Biblioteca  nacional  de  Espana,  ubi  sup. — Henriquez,  Summa  Theol.  Moral. 
Lib.  VI.  cap.  xvii.  n.  42  (Venetiis,  1600).— Kod.  a  Cunha,  pro  SS.  PP.  Pauli  V, 
Statuto,  Q.  5  (Benavente,  1611).— Ant.  de  Sousa,  op.  cit.  Tract,  i.  cap.  xviii.  — Tri- 
marchi,  op.  cit.  p.  83.— Paranio  de  Grig.  Officii  S.  Inquisit.  p.  878  (Matriti,  1598). 

2  Rod.  d  Cunha,  op.  cit.  Q.  vii. — Ant.  de  Sousa,  op.  cit.  Tract,  i.  cap.  i. 

3  Rod.  d  Cunha,  Q.  xvii.— Ant.  de  Sousa,  Tract.  I.  cap.  14.— The  bull  of  1622 


264  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

It  was  evident  that  papal  utterances  of  a  more  defi- 
nite character  were  requisite  if  the  efforts  to  suppress  the 
crime  were  to  have  a  measure  of  success  and,  in  1622, 
Gregory  XV.  attempted  this  in  the  comprehensive  bull 
Universi  Dominici  Gregis,  He  not  only  confirmed  the 
acts  of  his  predecessors  but  extended  their  provisions  over 
all  the  lands  of  the  Roman  obedience,  constituting  not 
only  inquisitors  but  also  episcopal  Officials  as  special  judges 
over  all  the  clergy,  including  the  exempted  religious 
Orders,  with  exclusive  jurisdiction,  and  full  power  to 
inflict  punishment,  even  to  degradation  and  relaxation  to 
the  secular  arm.  Moreover  he  sought  to  meet  all  the 
evasions  by  defining  that  solicitation,  whether  for  the 
priest  himself  or  for  another,  could  occur  either  before  or 
after  confession,  and  when  there  was  a  pretext  of  it, 
provided  it  was  in  a  place  where  confessions  were  heard, 
and  he  included  ilhcit  and  indecent  talk  and  acts  within 
the  definition.^ 

The  success  of  this  well-intended  measure  scarce 
corresponded  with  its  merits.  At  first  Spain  would  have 
none  of  it.  The  Inquisition  was  exceedingly  sensitive  as 
to  its  exclusiveness  of  jurisdiction  and  the  terms  of  the 
bull  appeared  to  restore  to  the  episcopal  courts  a  cumula- 
tive cognisance  of  solicitation.  By  some  means  the 
Ordinary  of  Seville  obtained  a  copy  and  showed  it  to  the 
inquisitors.     The  Supreme  Council  of  the  Inquisition  took 

decided  that  acting  as  a  priest  was  technically  solicitation.  As  it  said  nothing  about 
using  the  penitent  as  a  procuress — which  we  are  told  was  a  more  frequent  practice 
— there  were  doctors  who  held  that  it  did  not  subject  the  confessor  to  prosecution. 
Jo.  Sanchez,  Disputationes  Selectae,  Disp.  XI.  n.  3,  4  (Lngduni,  1636) — Trimarchi, 
op.  cit.  pp.  53,  55. 

1  Bullar.  Koman.  III.  484.  — "Qui  personas,  qusecumque  illae  sint,  ad  inhonesta, 
sive  inter  se  sive  cum  aliis,  quomodolibet  perpetranda,  in  actu  sacraraentalis  confes- 
sionis,  sive  ante  vel  post  immediate,  seu  occasione  vel  prstextu  confessionis  hujus- 
modi,  etiam  ipsa  confessione  non  sequuta,  sive  extra  occasionem  confessionis  in 
confessionario,  aut  in  loco  quocunque  ubi  confessionis  sacramentales  audiantur.  seu 
ad  confessionem  audiendam  electo,  simulantes  ibidem  confessiones  audire,  solicitare 
vel  provocare  tentaverint,  aut  cum  eis  illicitas  et  inhouestas  sermones  sive  tractatus 
habuerint." 


SOLICITATION  265 

alarm  and  promptly  addressed  a  memorial  to  Philip  IV., 
14  January,  1623,  dwelling  eloquently  upon  the  heinous- 
ness  and  frequency  of  the  crime,  the  energy  and  vigour  of 
the  Inquisition  in  repressing  it  and  the  disastrous  conse- 
quences of  granting  concurrent  jurisdiction  to  the  bishops. 
Confessors  would  be  much  emboldened  in  their  evil 
courses  by  the  comparative  leniency  of  the  episcopal 
courts ;  the  secrecy  which  kept  a  knowledge  of  these 
affairs  from  husbands  and  kinsmen  would  be  destroyed, 
and,  if  the  two  complainants  necessary  for  a  trial  should 
apply,  one  to  the  bishop  and  the  other  to  the  Inquisition, 
the  culprit  would  escape.  The  King  was  therefore  asked 
to  obtain  the  exemption  of  Spain  from  the  operation  of  the 
bull,  which  was  speedily  arranged.  Then,  after  some 
delay,  in  1629,  the  Supreme  Council  sent  copies  of  the 
bull  to  the  tribunals  as  a  guide  in  practice.  There  was 
some  trouble  with  bishops  who  revendicated  jurisdiction 
under  it,  but  the  Inquisition  boldly  asserted  that  it  had  a 
special  brief  conferring  exclusive  jurisdiction,  though  this 
it  could  never  exhibit,  and  it  finally  made  good  its  claim.  ^ 
Elsewhere,  the  bull  had  a  still  more  inhospitable 
reception.  It  was  not  accepted  or  published  in  either 
France  or  Germany.  In  France  the  assemblies  of  the 
clergy  refused  to  receive  it,  declaring  that  it  was  unsuited 
to  the  customs  of  the  country  and  that  it  tended  to  violate 
the  seal  of  the  confessional.  It  was  even  asserted  to  prove 
the  fallibility  of  the  Holy  See,  and  an  attempt  to  publish 
it,   early   in   the    eighteenth    century,   was    suppressed.^ 

1  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  940,  fol.  212  ;  Legajo  1465,  fol.  16 ; 
Gracia  y  Justicia,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  621,  fol.  27. — Archivo  historico  nacional,  In- 
quisicion de  Valencia,  Legajo  1,  n.  6,  fol.  274,  393  ;  Libro  7  de  Autos,  Legajo  2,  fol. 
114. — Biblioteca  nacional,  Seccion  de  MSS.  D.  118,  p.  148. 

2  Pontas,  Dictionnaire  de  Gas  de  Conscience,  I.  864  (Paris,  1741).— Lochou,  Traite 
du  Secret  de  la  Confession,  pp.  135,  144  (Brusselle,  1708).— Lenglet  Du  Fresnoy, 
Traite  du  Secret  invoilable  de  la  Confession,  pp.  283,  304-20. 

In  France,  solicitation  was  a  cas  royal,  cognisable  by  the  secular  courts.  A 
spiritual  director  of  a  convent  convicted  of  it  was  hanged  and  burnt  in  the  Place 
Maubert,  23  June,  1673. — Du  Fresnoy,  loc.  cit. 


266  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Germany  was  either  indifferent  or  opposed.  In  1666, 
Father  Gobat  states  that  the  Papal  decrees  have  not  been 
commented  upon  by  German  morahsts,  either  because 
they  have  not  been  received  there  and  there  is  no  expecta- 
tion that  they  will  be,  or  because  the  German  women 
cannot  be  expected  to  trouble  with  their  complaints  such 
exalted  personages  as  bishops  and  vicars-general,  and  he 
adds  that  he  can  name  a  number  of  vicars-general  who 
have  never  received  such  a  denunciation,  save  one,  in  a 
single  instance.^  Yet  this  absence  of  complaint  was  not 
due  to  the  superior  morality  of  the  German  priesthood. 
In  1733,  Dr.  Amort  tells  us  that  a  few  years  previously 
the  Franciscans  of  Bavaria  had  agreed  to  receive  the  bull 
in  so  far  as  to  prohibit  any  of  their  confessors  from 
absolving  a  penitent  who  had  been  solicited  by  one  of 
their  own  Order,  unless  she  would  permit  him  to  denounce 
the  offender,  an  example  which  Amort  wishes  were 
followed  elsewhere,  as  it  would  be  very  useful  in  repressing 
many  scandals  which  afflict  the  German  Church.^  As 
the  Roman  Inquisition,  in  1633,  had  ordered  all  superiors 
of  rehgious  houses,  under  pain  of  deprivation  of  office  and 
of  active  and  passive  voice,  to  assemble  the  brethren  once 
a  year  and  admonish  them  as  to  the  observance  of  the 
bulls,  this  shows  how  completely  they  had  been  ignored.^ 
When  Gregory  included  illicit  and  indecent  acts  and 
words  in  his  definition  of  solicitation,  he  merely  opened  a 
field  of  unlimited  debate.  Every  moralist  had  his  own 
standard,  from  the  extreme  of  rigorism  to  the  most 
abandoned  laxity.  Thus  already,  in  1635,  there  was  a 
discussion  whether  handing  a  love-letter  to  a  penitent  in 
the  confessional  came  under  the  definition  ;  if  it  was  to  be 

1  Gobat,  Alphabetum  Confessariorum,  n.  576-77. 

2  Amort,  Diet.  Selectt.  Casuum  Conscientise,  I.  704-5  (Aug.  Vindel.  1733). — See 
Reusch  (Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  des  Jesuitenordens,  p.  236,  Miinchen,  1894)  for 
scandals  recorded  in  the  memoranda  of  a  Jesuit  visitor  in  South  Germany. 

3  Trimanchi,  op.  cit.  p.  17. 


SOLICITATION  267 

read  on  the  spot,  it  was  generally  so  considered  ;  if  to  be 
read  subsequently,  the  stricter  theologians  condemned  it, 
while  others  argued  that  the  woman  had  been  absolved 
and  reconciled  to  God,  so  that  the  sacrament  was  out  of 
the  way.  It  was  not  until  1665  that  Alexander  VII. 
condemned  the  proposition  that  love-letters  could  be  thus 
given  without  incurring  the  penalties  of  solicitation.^  It 
was  a  received  rule  among  moralists  that  parvitas  mater  ice 
— or  the  trifling  character  of  an  offence  such  as  theft — 
reduced  mortal  sins  to  venial,  but  it  was  likewise  agreed 
that  there  was  no  parvitas  mateiice  in  usury  or  lust. 
Whether  there  was  in  solicitation  was  a  disputed  point 
until,  in  1661,  the  Roman  Inquisition  decided  in  the 
negative.  Still  this  settled  little,  for  at  the  same  time  it 
decided  that  praising  the  beauty  of  a  penitent  or  giving 
her  a  present  might  be  solicitation  or  not  according  to 
intention.^  Thus  the  question  of  intention  threw  every- 
thing in  doubt  and  justifies  Bodonus  in  applying  it  to 
such  utterances  as  "  Remember  me,  for  I  love  you,"  "  If  I 
were  a  layman  I  would  marry  you,"  "  Wait  for  me  at 
home,  for  I  have  to  speak  with  you  about  a  matter  of 
importance,"  and  even  advising  a  penitent  to  kill  her 
husband,  none  of  which  justify  denunciation  for  they  may 
be  innocent.^  In  1741,  Benedict  XIV.  endeavoured,  in 
the  bull  Sacramentum  Poenitentice,  to  define  the  indefinable 
more  accurately,  but  he  could  do  little  more  than  copy 
Gregory  XV.*     Subsequently  to  this,  St.   Alphonso  de 

1  Trimanchi,  op.  cit.  pp.  48-50. — Bullar.  Roman.  T.  VI.  Append,  p.  1. 

2  Berardi  de  Sollicitatione,  p.  5  (Faventiae,  1897). 

3  Bodoni  Sacrum  Tribunal  Judicum,  cap.  xxiii.  n.  53-4,  60,  61  (Romae,  1648)  ; 
Ejusdem  Manuale  Consultorum,  Sect.  xxv.  n.  91  (Romae,  1693). 

There  were  even  doctors  who  held  that  a  priest  confessing  a  rich  woman  and 
taking  advantage  of  her  falling  into  stupor  or  delirium  was  not  liable  to  denuncia- 
tion, for  in  that  condition  she  was  no  longer  his  penitent,  and  the  papal  bulls 
were  directed  not  against  fornicating  priests,  but  soliciting  confessors.  Berardi, 
however,  assures  us  (pp.  36-7)  that  the  weight  of  authority  is  against  this  line  of 
reasoning. 

4  Bullar,  Benedicti  XIV.  I.  23. 


268  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Liguori,  the  most  authoritative  moralist  of  modern  times, 
incHnes  to  the  laxist  view — not  wholly,  but  in  many  of  the 
debatable  cases.  He  follows  the  laxist  system  in  constru- 
ing strictly  the  words  of  the  papal  decrees  and  limiting 
them  to  the  letter,  not  developing  their  spirit.  The  effort 
to  subject  the  crime  to  the  Inquisition,  since  all  other 
jurisdictions  had  failed  to  curb  it,  rendered  necessary  the 
figment  of  suspicion  of  heresy  arising  out  of  flagrant  con- 
tempt for  the  sacrament.  Thus,  even  in  lands  where  there 
was  no  Inquisition  and  since  the  Inquisition  has  been 
abolished,  the  sacrament  came  to  be  the  one  thing  vital ; 
the  relation  between  confessor  and  penitent  and  the 
morals  involved  were  lost  to  sight.  Any  vileness  might 
be  committed  unless  it  could  be  proved  that  the  sacrament 
was  made  the  direct  instrument  of  seduction.  This  is 
Liguori's  guide,  and  the  only  difference  between  him  and 
the  extreme  laxists  is  that  he  sometimes  brushes  aside  the 
flimsy  casuistry  by  which  they  sought  to  justify  the 
unjustifiable.^  All  this  discussion  is  not  merely  academic  ; 
it  is  of  the  utmost  practical  importance  in  guiding  the 
confessor  in  granting  or  refusing  absolution  to  a  woman 
who  has  been  solicited,  if  she  declines  to  denounce  the 
offender,  and  the  net  result  is  to  prove  that  solicitation  is 
a  purely  technical  offence,  which  has  nothing  to  do  with 
morals. 

Another  source  of  perplexity  in  this  matter,  arising 
from  the  indispensable  confidences  of  the  confessional, 
is  the  difficulty  of  determining  the  limits  of  indecency 

1  S.  Alph.  de  Ligorio  Theol.  Moral.  Lib.  vi.  n.  676-91. 

It  is  true  thatBerardi  (op.  cit.  pp.  21-5)  controverts  Liguori's  tendency  to  laxity, 
but  nevertheless  he  remains  the  chief  authority  relied  upon  by  the  congregation  of 
the  Inquisition.  Thus,  in  answer  to  a  request  for  a  definition  as  to  the  degree  of 
guilt  which  would  bring  a  confessor  absolving  his  partner  in  guilt  under  the  consti- 
tutions of  Benedict  XIV.,  it  replied,  15  September,  1859,  to  consult  approved  authors 
and  especially  Liguori  (II  Consulenti  ecclesiastico,  IV.  19,  Romse,  1899).  In  fact, 
his  canonisation  and  elevation  to  the  dignity  of  a  Doctor  of  the  Church  imply  that 
his  writings  have  been  closely  scrutinised  and  found  to  be  flawless. 


SOLICITATION  269 

permissible  to  a  confessor  with  his  penitent,  so  long  as  he 
abstains  fi'om  positive  acts  about  which  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  Suggestive  questions  and  ribald  talk  might  be 
merely  for  the  delectation  which  the  moraHsts  tell  us  holy 
men  experience  in  discussing  these  matters,  or  they  might 
be  for  the  purpose  of  insidiously  inflaming  the  passions 
and  corrupting  a  prospective  victim,  or  again  they  might 
come  within  the  scope  allowed  to  the  confessor  of 
acquainting  himself  accurately  with  the  spiritual  and 
moral  condition  of  the  penitent.  Where  the  line  is  to  be 
drawn  is  incapable  of  practical  definition.  It  is  for  the 
confessor  to  decide  how  far  his  conscience  or  his  brutality 
may  lead  him,  and,  if  the  penitent  complains,  each  case 
has  to  be  settled  on  its  own  merits.  This  was  not  always 
by  any  means  easy.  In  1786  a  nun  of  the  Convent  of 
Santa  Clara  of  Jativa  complained  of  Fray  Vicente 
Gonzalez,  and  reported  a  number  of  irregularly  indecent 
and  wholly  irrelevant  questions  which  he  repeatedly  put 
to  her  in  confession.  Under  the  advice  of  the  definitor  of 
his  Order,  she  empowered  him  to  denounce  Gonzalez  to 
the  Inquisition,  whereupon  the  ordinary  confessor  of  the 
Council  intervened  and  persuaded  the  definitor  to  write  a 
letter  withdrawing  the  charges.  The  licence  which  some 
confessors  permitted  to  themselves  was  shown  in  the  case 
of  Fray  Vicente  Sarria,  in  1773,  in  which  his  interrogations 
were  brutally  indecent  and  completely  superfluous,  and 
in  that  of  Maestro  Diego  de  Agumanes,  in  1742,  who  used 
to  discourse  at  length,  with  a  young  nun,  on  sexual 
matters  in  a  manner  most  provocative  of  passion.^  In 
fact,  the  details  of  some  of  these  trials  would  be  incredible 
if  they  were  not  matters  of  judicial  record,  with  every 
evidence  of  authenticity,  and  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  the 

1  Archivo  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  365,  n.  46,  fol.  26, 
31 ;  Inquisicion  de  Toledo,  Legajo  227,  n.  7. 

That  this  sort  of  instruction  in  the  confessional  was  not  unknown  in  Italy  may 
be  gathered  from  Cardinal  Cozza's  Dubia  selecta,  Dub.  30. 


270  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

filthy  contagion   which  such  men  spread  in  the  confes- 
sional. 

Gregory  XV.,  in  his  bull  of  1622,  endeavoured  to 
overcome  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  punishment  of 
offenders — the  difficulty  of  inducing  solicited  penitents  to 
denounce  their  seducers.  It  was  the  only  mode  by  which 
the  crime  could  be  known,  while  the  reluctance  of  the 
woman  was  almost  insuperable.  In  Spain,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  Inquisition  sought  to  accomplish  this  by  the 
Edict  of  Faith,  excommunicating  those  who  failed  to  do 
so,  and  by  ordering  confessors  to  admonish  their  penitents 
as  to  their  duty,  when,  as  sometimes  happened,  the  woman 
would  include  her  sin  in  making  another  confession. 
There  were  authorities  who  denied  that  she  was  under 
this  obligation,  arguing  that  no  one  is  obliged  to  denounce 
an  accomplice  when  it  may  involve  his  own  infamy,^  and 
it  required  the  severest  pressure  to  compel  performance. 
Gregory  essayed  this  in  a  clause  ordering  all  confessors, 
who  learn  that  a  penitent  has  been  solicited,  to  admonish 
her  to  denounce  the  culprit ;  any  who  should  neglect  this 
or  teach  their  penitents  that  soliciting  confessors  were  not 
to  be  denounced,  were  to  be  duly  punished  by  the 
inquisitors  or  ordinaries.  The  Spanish  Inquisition,  accord- 
ingly, in  1629,  granted  faculties  to  inquisitors  to  punish 
all  confessors  who  taught  such  erroneous  doctrine,^  and 
Urban  VIII.  issued  an  encyclical  ordering  that  when 
episcopal  approbations  were  issued  to  confessors,  they 
should  be  instructed  to  require  denunciation  by  all  peni- 
tents who  had  been  solicited.^  It  illustrates  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Gallican  Church  that  it  flatly  contradicted 
these  papal  utterances.  In  1707,  with  the  support  of  the 
Faculty  of  Douai,  the  Sorbonne  pronounced  it  to  be  a 

1  Biblioteca  nacional,   Seccion  de  MSS.   B.  |159,  fol.  161. — Sayri  Clavis  Regio 
Sacerd.,  Lib.  xil.  cap.  xiv.  n.  26,  32. 

2  Archive  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  1,  Libro  6,  fol.  274. 

3  Summa  Diana,  s.v.  Denuntiare,  n.  9. 


SOLICITATION  271 

mortal  sin  for  a  confessor  to  oblige  a  penitent  to  denounce 
a  priest  who  had  seduced  her  in  the  confessional.^ 

In  Spain,  the  woman  who  failed  to  denounce  incurred 
excommunication,  and  consequently  was  incapable  of 
absolution  until  she  did  so,  a  rule  enforced  there  as  early 
as  1571,  and  at  a  later  period  elsewhere.^  That  it  proved 
effective  to  some  extent  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  cases  tried  by  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
derived  from  it  their  origin.  Even  the  Edict  of  Faith 
was  less  productive  in  overcoming  the  deep-seated  repug- 
nance of  women  to  expose  their  weakness,  but,  at  some 
time  or  other,  in  making  a  general  confession,  they  would 
chance  to  mention  a  slip  of  this  kind,  when  denial  of 
absolution  would  compel  them  to  act.  Yet  that  at  best 
this  was  uncertain,  is  shown  by  the  long  interval  which 
frequently  occurred  between  the  crime  and  its  denuncia- 
tion— in  some  cases  twelve,  fifteen,  and  even  eighteen 
years.* 

It  was  doubtless  with  the  object  of  overcoming  the 
repugnance  of  women  to  expose  their  shame  that  the 
Roman  Inquisition,  by  a  decree  of  25  July,  1624,  ordered 
that  neither  the  penitent  nor  the  confessor  was  to  be 
questioned  as  to  her  consent,  and  that,  if  either  of  them 
volunteered  the  information,  it  was  not  to  be  entered  on 
the  record.*  The  casuists,  indeed,  agreed  that  the  woman, 
if  interrogated,  could  deny,  using  the  mental  reservation 
that  she  had  not  so  consented  as  to  reveal  it  to  the 
examiner.^  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  wholesome  rule  of  the 
Roman  Inquisition  was  long  in  winning  its  way  in  Spain, 
where  the  reports  of  the  trials  show  that  the  unfortunate 
witness   was   spared   nothing.     Indeed,    as   late  as  1750, 

1  Lochon,  Traite  du  Secret  de  la  Confession,  pp.  197  sqq. 

2  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  939,  fol.  107. — Trimarchi,  op.  cit.  pp. 
95,  100,  104. 

3  Archive  historico  nacienal,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  365,  fel.  10,  18,  35. 

4  Cozza  Dubia  selecta,  Dub.  xiv. 

5  Trimarchi,  op.  cit.  p.  119. 


272  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

instructions  to  commissioners  appointed  to  take  deposi- 
tions in  these  cases  require  them  to  ascertain  and  record 
all  details  with  the  utmost  minuteness,  no  matter  how 
obscene  they  may  be.^  Towards  the  close  of  its  career, 
however,  the  Spanish  Inquisition  learned  mercy,  and 
instructions  issued  in  1816  require  the  examiner  to  warn 
the  witness  that  she  is  not  required  to  state  whether  she 
consented,  and  if  she  says  that  she  did  so,  it  is  to  be 
omitted  from  the  record.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  this 
received  scant  respect,  for,  in  1819,  the  Supreme  Council, 
in  ordering  the  arrest  of  Fray  Juan  Montes,  feels  it 
necessary  to  call  special  attention  to  the  rule.^ 

There  was  one  thing  which  greatly  reduced  the  pres- 
sure on  the  consciences  of  women,  thus  seduced,  to 
denounce  the  delinquents — the  habitual  practice  of  the 
latter  in  granting  them  absolution  for  the  sin  committed. 
This  destroyed  the  sin  so  effectually  that  it  no  longer 
counted  before  God  or  man  ;  it  need  not  be  recited  in  any 
subsequent  confession,  and  it  could  be  denied  without  sin 
for  it  no  longer  existed.^  This  was  an  old  custom  both 
with  the  concubinary  priesthood  and  soliciting  confessors, 
and,  though  it  was  deprecated  by  the  schoolmen,  the 
absolution  was  universally  conceded  to  be  valid  as,  indeed, 
it  necessarily  must  be  under  the  doctrine  that  the  sacra- 
ments are  not  vitiated  in  polluted  hands.*  In  every  way 
the  practice  was  scandalous  and  demoralising  ;  it  gave  the 
tempter  an  enormous  advantage  in  overcoming  the  virtue 

1  Archive  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  299. — "A  las 
quales  procurara  satisf azer  con  la  mayor  individuacion  y  claridad,  declarando  formal- 
mente  las  palabras  y  acciones  que  intervinieron,  por  obsenas  que  sean." 

2  Oartilla  de  Comisarios,  §§  9,  10  (Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Legajo 
1473).— Ibidem,  Libro  890. 

3  Herzig,  Manuale  Confessarii,  P.  ii.  n.  52.— Gury,  Casus  Conscientiae,  i.  418  ;  ii. 
872.— 6y.  S.  Alphonsum  de  Ligorio,  Theol.  Moral.  Lib.  ill.  n.  162. 

4  S.  Th.  Aquinat.  Summae  Supplem.  Q.  xx.  Art.  ii.  ad.  1.— Astesarri  Summae, 
Lib.  V.  Tit.  xxxix.  Q.  4. — Sumraa  Sylvestrina  s.v.  Confessio  sacramentalis,  i.  §  17  ; 
III.  §  9. 


SOLICITATION  273 

of  his  penitent  by  promising  her  immediate  pardon  for 
their  mutual  sin,  and  it  interfered  greatly  with  the  obli- 
gation of  denunciation.  It  is  therefore  remarkable  that 
Gregory  XV.,  in  his  bull  of  1622,  should  have  omitted  all 
reference  to  it.  Apparently  the  abuse  was  so  venerable 
and  rested  on  foundations  so  dangerous  to  disturb  that 
prudence  counselled  silence,  while  great  canonists  like 
Sanchez  and  Diana  were  found  to  argue  that  not  only 
could  the  confessor  absolve  his  partner  in  guilt,  but  that  it 
was  expedient  for  him  to  do  so  if  it  would  soothe  her  con- 
science and  avert  defamation  from  her,  and  this  although 
the  relations  between  them  were  notorious.^  Even  in 
1661,  when  the  Roman  Inquisition  settled  sixteen 
questions  relating  to  solicitation,  there  was  no  allusion 
ventured  to  this.^ 

Had  there  been  a  sincere  desire  to  put  an  end  to  the 
practice,  a  way  could  readily  have  been  found  by  limiting 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  confessor  in  such  cases,  as  had 
already  been  done  by  some  thirteenth-century  councils  in 
the  Low  Countries,  In  1661  the  provincial  synod  of 
Cambrai  revived  their  canons,  and  decreed  that  no  con- 
fessor in  such  cases  should  have  power  to  absolve,  except 
in  articulo  mortis,  a  rule  which  was  soon  afterwards  pro- 
mulgated by  the  congregation  of  archpriests  of  the  province 
of  Mechlin.^  Rome  was  slow  to  follow  the  example.  In 
1665,  it  is  true,  Alexander  VII.,  in  condemning  a  number 
of  propositions,  included  one  which  affirmed  that  absolution 
under  such  circumstances  reHeved  the  woman  from  the 
obhgation  to  denounce,  but  he  went  no  further.^  That 
such  a  proposition  should  have  been  defended  shows  the 
audacity  of  the  latitudinarian  morahsts,  but  its  condemna- 
tion did  not  affect  the  evil,  which  was  left  in  the  hands  of 

1  Summa  Diana,  s.v.  Confessarius,  n.  35  (Venetiis,  1646). 

2  Berardi,  de  SoUicitatione,  p.  5. 

3  Hartzheim,  III.  86;  IV.  68  ;  IX.  388.— Synodicon  Mechlinense,  II.  319. 

4  Bullar.  Roman.  T.  VI.  Append,  p.  1. 

VOL.  II.  S 


274  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  episcopate.  In  the  province  of  Mechhn  the  power  to 
grant  such  absolutions  was  specially  excepted  in  the  certi- 
ficates issued  to  confessors,  but  this  accomplished  little,  and 
in  1698  the  synod  of  Namur  peremptorily  inhibited  the 
abuse.^  In  the  province  of  Besan9on  a  canon  of  1689 
declares  that  although  the  practice  had  long  been  forbidden, 
yet  it  continued  to  flourish,  and  a  cure  was  sought  in 
withdrawing  the  power  to  absolve  such  penitents  —  a 
regulation  which  had  to  be  repeated  in  1707.^^  In  1709 
the  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  forbade  it 
in  his  diocese,  but  Pontas  informs  us  that  such  absolutions 
were  valid  everywhere,  except  where  prohibited  by  epis- 
copal authority,  and  Dr.  Amort  in  1732  makes  the  same 
statement  as  to  Germany.*  This  discreditable  condition 
continued  until  the  accession  of  Benedict  XIV.,  who  in 
his  constitution  Sacramentum  Poenitentiae,  in  1741,  de- 
nounced the  device  of  sacrilegious  ministers  of  Satan 
rather  than  of  God  in  absolving  their  partners  in  guilt,  and 
erected  into  a  general  law  what  had  previously  been  mere 
local  regulations  in  some  dioceses.  He  absolutely  pro- 
hibited such  absolutions  for  the  future,  except  in  articulo 
mortis  when  no  other  priest  was  to  be  had  ;  he  pronounced 
them  when  granted  to  be  null  and  void,  and  punished 
the  attempt  with  ipso  facto  excommunication,  removable 
only  by  the  Holy  See.*  In  the  next  year,  1742,  he 
extended  these  provisions  to  the  Greek  Churches  in  the 
Roman  obedience,  and  four  years  later  he  showed  how 
overmastering  was  the  dread  of  scandal  by  permitting 
absolution  in  articulo  inortis  in  all  cases  where  another 
confessor   could  not  be   called  in  without  exciting  sus- 

1  Hartzheim,  X.  219. 

2  Ibid.  p.  323. 

3  Pontas,  Diet,  de  Gas  de  Conscience,  I.  837. — Amort,  Diet.  Select.  Casuum  Con- 
Bcientise,  I.  932. 

4  Bullar.  Bened.  PP.  XIV.  I.  23. — For  a  discussion  on  the  subject  see  his  De  Synodo 
dioecesana,  Lib.  vii.  cap.  xiv. 


SOLICITATION  275 

picion,   which   was   virtually  a   removal   of  the   prohibi- 
tion.^ 

These  well-intentioned  measures  had  little  practical 
result.  To  what  extent  the  bulls  were  admitted  in  the 
various  European  states  I  have  no  means  of  knowing,  but 
the  synod  of  Namur,  in  1742,  felt  it  necessary  to  remind 
confessors  that  they  could  not  absolve  women  whom  they 
had  seduced  in  the  confessional,  and  in  1768  the  Bishop 
of  Ypres  was  obliged  to  recall  the  attention  of  his  clergy 
to  the  bulls  of  Gregory  and  Benedict,  and  to  threaten 
their  transgresssors  with  excommunication.^  In  1775  the 
Apostolic  Vicar  of  Cochin  China  had  the  effrontery  to  ask 
Pius  VI.  whether  the  provisions  of  Benedict  XIV.  applied 
to  the  Franciscan  missionaries  under  his  charge,  and,  if  so, 
whether  they  could  not  be  moderated,  to  which  somewhat 
shameless  questions  Pius  replied  affirmatively  as  to  the 
first  and  negatively  as  to  the  second ;  while  the  continu- 
ance of  the  abuse  is  shown  by  a  pastoral  letter  of  the 
Apostolic  Vicar  of  Suchuen  in  1803.^  The  Spanish  Inqui- 
sition, after  some  little  delay,  accepted  the  bull  Sacramen- 
tum  Poenitentige,*  and  in  1763  it  told  Padre  Felipe  Garcia 
Pacheco  that  his  asserted  ignorance  of  it  did  not  relieve 
him  from  its  operation.  It  produced,  however,  little  or  no 
practical  effect.  In  the  great  majority  of  subsequent  cases 
of  solicitation  the  culprits  had  absolved  the  women,  and 
the  only  result  of  the  bull  was  that  in  their  sentences 
they  were  told  to  secretly  advise  their  penitents  to  repeat 
all  subsequent  confessions,  as  being  invalidated,  and,  as 

1  Bull  Etsi  pastoralis,  §  ix.  n.  5  (Concil.  Collectio  Lacensis  II.  618). — Constit. 
cxx.  §  3  (Bullar.  I.  219). 

2  Hartzheim,  X.  487,  638. 

3  Collectio  Lacensis,  III.  554 ;  VI.  646-7. 

4  There  was  always  delay  in  accepting  papal  utterances  that  had  not  been  asked 
for.  This  bull  must  have  occasioned  considerable  debate,  for  it  was  not  until 
22  December,  1743,  that  the  papal  nuncio  transmitted  to  the  Inquisitor-General, 
Manrique  di  Lara,  two  copies,  with  instructions  to  publish  it  in  his  diocese  of  San- 
tiago.—Bulario  de  la  Orden  de  Santiago,  Lib.  IV.  fol.  283  (Archiva  historico 
nacional). 


276  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

for  themselves,  to  consult  their  consciences  as  to  the 
irregularity  of  celebrating  Mass  while  under  the  censures 
of  the  bull.'"^  In  this,  as  in  so  much  else,  the  wholesome 
measures  of  the  Holy  See  were  virtually  nullified  in 
practice. 

The  confessor  in  search  of  easy  victims  had  a  resource 
in  requiring  male  penitents,  who  confessed  to  carnal  sins, 
to  name  their  partners  in  guilt,  when  the  knowledge  thus 
gained  could  be  utilised  in  selecting  objects  for  solicitation. 
The  custom  was  an  old  one,  for  the  information  thus 
sought  might  be  used  for  good  purposes  as  well  as  for 
evil.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach 
disapproves  of  it,  for  though  it  may  sometimes  be  service- 
able, priestly  proclivity  to  sin,  he  says,  renders  it  dangerous.^ 
Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Bartolome  de 
Medina  declares  that,  if  a  confessor  refuses  absolution 
unless  the  penitent  reveals  the  name  of  his  accomplice,  he 
should  be  denounced  to  the  Inquisition  as  a  heretic,  and 
the  penitent  should  be  refused  absolution  until  he  makes 
the  denunciation.^  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that 
Benedict  XIV.  should  have  been  the  first  to  take  action 
on  this  abuse.  In  1745,  in  a  brief  addressed  to  Portugal, 
he  prohibited  utterly,  as  scandalous  and  pernicious,  the 
custom  of  inquiring  the  name  of  the  accomplice,  and 
in  1746  he  decreed  excommunication,  latce  sententice, 
reserved  to  the  Holy  See,  on  all  who  should  teach  it  as 
being  permissible.  It  was  assumed  that  these  briefs  were 
confined  to  Portugal,  and  in  a  few  months  he  was  obliged 
to  issue  another  declaring  the  prohibition  to  be  general  and 
to  be  enforced  everywhere.  Still  another  utterance  was 
required  in  1749,  placing  the  offence  in  Portugal  under 

1  A  number  of  cases  illustrating  this  will  be  found  in  the  Archivo  historico 
nacional,  Inquisicione  de  Toledo,  Legajos  1  and  2. 

2  Csesar.  Heisterb.  Dial.  Moral,  iii.  cap.  28-31. 

3  Bart,    a  Medina  Instruct.    Confessar.    Lib    II.  cap.  iv.  De  Complicibus,  §  1 
(Colonic,  1609). 


SOLICITATION  277 

the  Inquisition.^  I  have  not  met  with  any  formal  grant 
of  the  kind  to  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  but  it  assumed  the 
power  and,  in  spite  of  the  papal  prohibitions,  until  its 
suppression,  there  were  cases  brought  before  it  of  con- 
fessors who  refused  absolution  unless  the  names  of  the 
guilty  partners  were  revealed  to  them.^  The  abuse  seems 
ineradicable.  Pius  IX.,  in  the  bull  Apostolicse  Sedis 
(1849),  deemed  it  necessary  to  decree  reserved  excom- 
munication for  all  who  should  teach  it  to  be  lawful,  and 
various  recent  councils  have  felt  called  to  condemn  the 
practice.^  Notwithstanding  all  this,  in  modern  times  it  is 
agreed  that  there  are  circumstances  under  which  the  con- 
fessor is  justified  in  demanding  the  name  of  the  accomplice 
under  threat  of  withholding  absolution,  and  as  such  neces- 
sity must  of  course  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  confessor, 
the  door  is  kept  open  to  the  misuse  of  the  power.* 

Seduction  in  the  confessional  was  not  wholly  confined 
to  one  side.  The  relations  of  confessor  and  penitent 
expose  both  to  temptation,  and  what  is  known  as  passive 
solicitation  occurs  when  the  woman  is  the  tempter.  As 
the  matter  is  not  referred  to  in  the  papal  decrees,  writers 
on  the  subject  are  very  much  at  odds  as  to  its  treatment 
and  what  is  to  be  done  to  either  party.  They  discuss  the 
liabiHty  of  the  confessor  when  the  solicitation  is  mutual, 
and  when  he  yields  to  threats  of  making  an  outcry  after 

1  Benedict!  PP.  XIV.  Constitt.  Suprema,  July  7,  1745  ;  Ubi  primum,  4  June, 
1746  ;  Ad  eradicandam,  28  September,  1746  ;  Apostolic!  minister!!,  9  December, 
1749.     See  also  his  De  Synodo  dicEcesana,  vi.  xi. 

2  Archivo  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  100. 

3  CoUectio  Lacensis,  VI.  159,  334. — Acta  Concili!  Plenarii  Baltimorens,  1866, 
p.  305. 

4  Schieler's  Theory  and  Practice  of  the  Confessional,  p.  354  (New  York,  1906). 
This  work  may  be  assumed  to  represent  authoritatively  the  received  practice 

of  the  Church,  at  least  in  Germany  and  the  United  States.  It  bears  the  imprimatur 
of  ^Archbishop  Farley  of  New  York,  it  is  translated  under  the  supervision  of  the  Eev. 
H.  J.  Heuser,  Professor  of  Theology  at  Overbrook  Seminary,  and  it  has  an  Introduc- 
tion by  Archbishop  Messmer,  of  Milwaukee.  Moreover  the  publishers,  Benziger 
Brothers,  style  themselves  "  Printers  to  the  Holy  Apostolic  See," 


278  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

he  has  rebuifed  the  temptress,  and  they  draw  distinctions 
between  yielding  on  the  spot  and  postponing  the  final  act.^ 
An  authoritative  decision  was  postponed  until  1661,  when 
the  Roman  Inquisition  decided  that  the  confessor  was  to 
be  denounced,  under  the  papal  decrees,  when  the  soHcita- 
tion  was  mutual,  and  also  when  he  yielded  through  fear, 
and  nothing  was  said  about  the  woman. ^  Subsequently  to 
this  Cardinal  Cozza  asserts  that  she  is  not  liable  to  denun- 
ciation ;  she  is  not  alluded  to  in  the  papal  decrees,  and  the 
case,  although  equally  an  insult  to  the  sacrament,  is  so  rare 
in  comparison  with  the  converse  that  the  Popes  have  not 
deemed  it  worthy  of  special  animadversion.^  From  this 
we  may  assume  that  the  space  devoted  to  the  matter  by 
the  commentators,  and  their  assertions  of  its  frequency, 
may  reasonably  be  attributed  to  their  desire  to  minimise 
the  guilt  of  confessors  and  exaggerate  that  of  their  peni- 
tents. Still,  such  cases  did  sometimes  occur,  and  I  have 
met  with  two  or  three  in  which  the  woman  was 
denounced  to  the  Spanish  Inquisition.* 

Classed  with  solicitation  was  a  somewhat  kindred  abuse 
of  the  confessional  known  to  the  Inquisition  as  flagellation. 
This  was  prescribing  the  discipline  as  penance,  and  either 
administering  it  personally  or  causing  its  self-infliction  in 
presence  of  the  confessor,  the  penitent  being  stripped  as 
far  as  necessary.  As  the  lash  .could  be  ordered  for  any 
peccant  portion  of  the  body,  this  gave  opportunity  for  the 
vilest  indecency,  and  it  was  fully  exploited  by  those  of 
brutish  instincts.  In  fact,  it  was  not  confined  to  the 
penitent,  for  confessors  sometimes  found  gratification  in 

1  Paramo  de  Grig.  Officii  S.  Inquis.,  p.  886. — Rod.  a  Cuuha,  Q.  ix.  xi. — Ant.  de 
Sousa,  Tract,  i.  cap.  6,  7,  17. — Alberghini  Man.  Qaalificatorum,  cap.  xxxi.  §  i.  n.  10, 
11,  17.— Trimarchi,  pp.  193-212.— Bibl.  Nacional  de  Espana,  Seccion  deMSS.  V.  377, 
cap.  XX.  §§  5,  10. 

2  Berardi  de  SoUicitatione,  p.  5. 

3  Cozza,  Dubia  Selecta,  Dub.  9. 

4  Archive  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  376. — Archive  de 
Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  1006,  fol.  25  ;  Registro  de  Solicitantes,  A.  7,  fol.  2. 


SOLICITATION  279 

making  the  women  discipline  them,  like  Fray  Francisco 
Calvo,  who  in  1730  denounced  himself  to  the  Inquisition 
of  Madrid  for  having  caused  himself  to  be  flagellated.^  At 
first  there  was  considerable  doubt  as  to  whether  such 
cases  came  under  the  papal  decrees,  but  it  was  finally 
decided  to  be  a  form  of  solicitation,  and  after  this  con- 
clusion had  been  reached  the  Inquisition  had  no  hesitation 
in  j^Tosecuting  Jlagelantes,^  Culprits  were  not  treated  with 
deserved  severity,  for  the  records  show  to  what  an  extent 
the  abuse  was  sometimes  carried  ;  cases  are  not  infrequent, 
and  continue  until  the  suppression  of  the  Holy  Office.^ 

It  remains  for  us  to  see  what  was  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  papal  decrees  directed  against  the  abuse  of  the 
sacred  relation  established  between  the  confessor  and  his 
spiritual  daughters.  As  France  and  Germany  had  refused 
to  receive  the  bull  of  Gregory  XV.,  the  matter  remained 
as  before  in  the  hands  of  the  bishops,  who  for  the  most  part 
were  indifferent,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  no  effective  measures 
were  taken,  beyond  the  occasional  comminatory  proceedings 
of  synods,  which  serve  rather  to  prove  the  existence  of  the 
evil  than  to  promise^ its  suppression,  though  occasionally,  it 
is  true,  a  prelate  like  Fenelon  might  instruct  mission 
priests,  to  whom  women  should  confess  to  have  been 
solicited,  to  refuse  absolution  unless  the  penitent  would 
authorise  denunciation  to  be  made  to  him.*  As  he  felt  it 
necessary,  moreover,  to  promise  protection  both  to  the 
woman  and  the  mission  priest,  it  indicates  the  risk  to  which 
were  exposed  all  those  who  sought  to  obey  the  papal 
commands. 

From  such  desultory  and  local  attempts  no  remedy 

1  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  1006,  fol.  25. 

2  Ibid.,  Inquisicion  de  LogronOjProcesas  de  fe,  Legajo  1. — De  Sousa,  Aphorismi 
Inquisitionis,  Lib.  I.  cap.  xxxiv.  n.  40. — Alberghini,  op.  cit.  cap.  xxxi.  §  i.  n.  19. 

3  Archive    historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,   Legajo    100. — Archivo 
de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Libro  890. 

4  Fenelon,  Avis  aux  Confesseurs  (CEuvres,  Ed.  1838,  II.  349). 


280  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

could  be  expected  of  an  evil  so  inveterate  and  widespread. 
In  Italy  and  in  Spain,  however,  the  crime  was  subjected 
to  the  respective  Inquisitions,  which  were  armed  with 
power  and  organisation  sufficient  for  its  suppression,  if 
that  were  practicable  under  the  conditions  of  human 
nature  and  the  temptations  and  opportunities  offered  by 
the  confessional  to  a  celibate  priesthood. 

As  regards  Italy,  the  data  are  lacking  to  enable  us  to 
ascertain  what  use  the  Inquisition  made  of  its  faculties. 
The  dread  of  scandal  rendered  secrecy  the  one  essential 
matter.  The  culprit,  if  found  guilty,  was  not  sentenced 
and  punished  in  public  as  an  example,  but  in  the  chambers 
of  the  Holy  Office,  or  in  his  convent  if  a  member  of  a 
religious  Order.  No  one  was  to  know  that  the  crime  had 
been  committed  and  expiated.  Under  such  circumstances 
the  inquirer  can  ask  in  vain  for  statistics  or  for  instances 
to  determine  whether  culpable  leniency  or  wholesome 
severity  was  shown  to  offisnders.  We  only  know  that 
nominally  the  prescribed  regulations  assume  the  crime  to 
require  stern  repression.  The  suspicion  of  heresy  implied 
in  it  was  classed  as  vehement,  and  the  culprit  was  obliged 
to  abjure  de  vehementi,  which  assumed  that  he  was  to  be 
burnt  without  ceremony  in  case  of  relapse.  If  he  denied 
the  accusation  and  the  evidence  was  insufficient  for  con- 
viction, he  could  be  tortured,  as  was  the  practice  of  the 
Roman  Inquisition  in  other  crimes ;  or  if  he  admitted  the 
facts  and  denied  evil  purpose,  he  could  similarly  be  tortured 
to  discover  his  intention.  If  convicted,  the  bull  of 
Gregory  XV.  prescribed  a  wide  range  of  punishments, 
according  to  the  degree  of  culpability,  even  to  the  cul- 
minating rigour  of  the  stake.  Although  the  latter  extreme 
may  be  regarded  as  merely  a  deterrent  threat,  never 
intended  to  be  executed,  yet  we  are  told  that  the  punish- 
ment was  five  or  seven  years  in  the  galleys,  which  was 
sufficient  to  inspire  wholesome  fear.     In  1677,  moreover, 


SOLICITATION  281 

the  Roman  Inquisition  manifested  a  laudable  desire  to 
discover  offenders  by  following  Spanish  example  in  an 
edict  requiring  all  persons,  under  pain  of  excommunication 
latce  sententice,  to  denounce  within  a  month  all  cases 
coming  within  their  knowledge/ 

It  is  not  stated,  however,  that  this  edict  was  ever 
repeated,  as  in  Spain,  and  in  practice  there  was  much  to 
soften  the  severity  of  the  law.  Obstacles  to  trial  were 
interposed  by  a  decree  of  the  Inquisition,  17  July,  1627, 
providing  that  arrests  were  not  to  be  made  on  the 
denunciation  of  a  single  penitent,  but  only  a  report  was  to 
be  made  to  it.  Two  denunciations  were  required  for 
arrest  and  imprisonment,  and  three,  or  according  to  some 
authorities,  four,  for  conviction,  the  reason  alleged  being 
the  untrustworthiness  of  female  evidence  and  the  difficulty 
otherwise  of  getting  learned  and  conscientious  men  to 
confess  women.  Similarly,  the  punishment  was  much 
milder  than  the  threat.  For  a  single  solicitation,  duly 
proved,  it  sufficed  to  deprive  the  offisnder  of  his  faculty  to 
confess ;  if  he  had  repeatedly  solicited  two  women, 
deprivation  of  priestly  functions  was  added ;  and  if  there 
had  been  scandal,  a  regular  priest  was  to  be  perpetually 
secluded  in  a  convent  and  a  secular  one  in  a  hospital.  If 
the  penitent  were  the  wife  or  daughter  of  a  magnate,  or  if 
there  had  been  many  women  concerned  and  much  public 
scandal,  then  came  degradation  and  the  galleys.^  Con- 
sidering the  extreme  difficulty  of  inducing  women  to 
denounce  their  confessors,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  chances 
of  escape  were  great  and  the  danger  of  severe  penalties 
small.  It  is  true  that  in  1745  the  Roman  Inquisition 
decreed  that  soliciting  confessors  incurred  perpetual 
disability  for  celebrating  Mass,^  but  there  was  always  the 
prospect  of  obtaining  dispensations   from    an    indulgent 

1  Trimarchi,  pp.  288,  301,  302.— Berardi  de  Sollicitatione,  p.  6, 

2  Trimarchi,  pp.  289-92,  304,  306. 

3  Berardi,  op.  cit.  p.  126, 


282  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Mother  Church,  and  all  this  legislation  seems  virtually  to 
have  become  a  dead  letter,  for,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter, 
when  Leopold  I.  of  Tuscany  endeavoured,  in  1774,  to 
reform  the  nunneries  in  his  dominions,  they  were  found  to 
be  the  scene  of  the  worst  disorders  between  the  nuns  and 
their  spiritual  directors,  and  the  reformatory  efforts  of 
Leopold  met  their  chief  opposition  in  the  Roman  Curia 
itself^ 

There  was  also  always  the  resource,  when  a  soliciting 
priest  found  himself  in  danger  of  denunciation,  of  de- 
nouncing himself,  for  those  who  spontaneously  confessed 
were  treated  with  exceptional  leniency.  According  to 
rule,  if  he  did  this  before  denunciation,  and  had  been  guilty 
with  only  one  woman,  a  severe  reprimand  sufficed,  while, 
if  two  witnesses  accused  him,  he  was  to  be  deprived  of 
confessing.^  One  or  two  cases,  however,  of  which  we 
chance  to  have  the  record,  would  seem  to  show  that  self- 
denunciation  conferred  virtual  immunity.  The  minim, 
Hilario  Caone,  of  Besan9on,  was  domiciled  in  Seville.  He 
probably  had  intimation  that  he  was  about  to  be  de- 
nounced, for  he  fled  to  Rome  in  1653,  and  confessed  to 
the  Inquisition  that  in  the  church  of  San  Francisco  de 
Paula  of  Seville  he  had  solicited  some  forty  women,  mostly 
with  success.  For  this  he  was  merely  sentenced  to  abjure 
de  vehementi,  to  visit  the  seven  privileged  altars  of  St. 
Peter's,  and  to  recite  the  chapters  of  the  Virgin  weekly  for 
three  years.  That  this  was  the  ordinary  treatment  of  such 
cases  may  be  inferred  from  that  of  Vincenzo  Barzi,  in  the 
same  year,  who  had  a  similar  sentence  on  denouncing 
himself.^ 

1  De  Potter,  Vie  de  Scipion  de'  Ricci,  T.  I.  pp.  87  sqq.  258  sqq. 

2  Trimarchi,  p.  310. 

3  MSS.  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  Class  II.  vol.  IV.  pp.  63,  294. 

It  should  be  added  that  this  leniency  did  not  extend  to  cases  in  which  there  had 
been  a  prior  denunciation.  In  1695  Dr.  Agustin  Velda,  rector  of  La  Sallana,  was 
accused  of  solicitation  before  the  tribunal  of  Valencia.  To  avoid  arrest  he  fled  to 
Rome,  and  presented  himself  before  the  Inquisition  there,  which  ordered  him  to 


SOLICITATION  283 

In  Spain,  access  to  the  voluminous  archives  of  the 
Inquisition  gives  us  for  the  first  time  an  opportunity  of 
acquaintance  with  these  secrets  of  the  confessional  which 
the  Church  has  always  guarded  so  carefully  from  the 
profane,  thus  rendering  possible  a  fairly  accurate  under- 
standing of  its  attitude  towards  soliciting  confessors.  The 
Inquisition  had  accepted  in  good  faith  the  jurisdiction 
conferred  on  it,  but  it  always  had  a  leaning  in  favour  oi 
clerical  delinquents,  and  the  rules  which  it  established  for 
this  class  of  cases  show  how  much  more  benignantly  it 
regarded  this  particular  suspicion  of  heresy  than  other 
suspicions.  It  is  true  that  no  ecclesiastic  could  be  arrested 
on  any  charge  by  a  tribunal  without  referring  the  case  to 
the  Supreme  Council  and  awaiting  its  orders,  so  that  in 
this  respect  confessors  had  no  advantage  over  their 
brethren,  but,  as,  in  Italy,  two  independent  denunciations 
of  soHcitation  were  required,  where  one  sufficed  in  ordinary 
heresy.  Where  denunciation  was  so  difficult  to  secure, 
this  was  a  most  important  advantage  to  the  delinquents, 
and  saved  thousands  of  them  from  trial.  A  woman 
who  chanced  in  a  general  confession  to  mention  her  sin 
with  a  previous  confessor  might  be  refused  absolution 
until  she  denounced  him.  If  she  did  so,  the  Inquisitors, 
after  the  introduction  of  postal  facilities,  sent  letters  of 
inquiry  to  all  the  other  tribunals,  to  learn  whether  they 
had  the  culprit's  name  on  their  register  of  solicitors.  If 
the  rephes  were  in  the  negative,  the  papers  were  filed  away, 
and  nothing  more  was  done,  unless  at  some  future  time 
another  denunciation  was  made  to  some  tribunal.  Mean- 
while the  woman  was  left  under  the  impression  that  her 
seduction  by  her  confessor  was  too  trivial  a  matter  to 
require  investigation,  and  the  offisnder  was  left  at  liberty 
to  continue  his  assaults    on  the  virtue  of  his  penitents. 

return  and  stand  trial  at  home,  and  he  did  so. — MSS.  of  Royal  Library  of  Copen- 
hagen, 218b,  p.  339. 


284  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Perhaps  if,  after  the  lapse  of  years,  a  second  accusation 
came,  the  first  accuser  was  dead  and  could  not  make  the 
indispensable  ratification  of  her  testimony,  so  that  the 
culprit  had  another  respite.  The  records  are  full  of  cases 
in  which  a  second  denunciation  did  not  come  until  ten, 
fifteen,  and  sometimes  even  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  years 
after  the  first ;  and  there  are  many  in  which  three  denuncia- 
tions are  specified,  showing  that  the  first  victim  must 
have  died  before  the  second  came  forward.  The  pro- 
longed impunity  thus  enjoyed  by  offenders  whose  offences 
must  have  been  habitual  shows  how  disastrous  was  the 
favour  thus  extended  to  them.  The  reason  given  for 
this  double  denunciation  was  the  assumed  unreliability 
of  female  testimony,  but  in  ordinary  heresy  all  witnesses 
were  welcome,  irrespective  of  sex,  character,  and  almost 
of  age  ;  while,  if  there  was  enmity  or  infamy,  the  accused, 
from  whom  the  knowledge  of  their  names  was  with- 
held, had  to  grope  his  way  to  identify  and  disable  them. 
But  in  these  cases  the  Inquisition  saved  him  from  all 
this  and  protected  him,  before  it  would  act  on  the 
denunciation,  by  a  searching  inquiry  into  the  character 
of  the  witness  and  any  possible  enmity  that  might  exist.  ^ 
Regrets  were  expressed  that  female  testimony  was  ad- 
mitted at  all ;  it  was  justifiable  only  because  the  nature 
of  the  crime  admitted  of  no  other,  and  writers  like  Paramo 
discredit  it  in  advance  with  the  customary  monastic  abuse 
of  women.  ^ 

Another  favour  shown  to  the  accused  was  immunity 
from  torture.  While  in  ordinary  accusations  of  heresy  a 
single  witness  sufficed  to  expose  the  defendant  to  the  rack 
or  strappado,  in  case  of  his  denial,  the  confessor  was 
exempt,  no  matter  how  many  witnesses  appeared  against 
him.     In  the  earlier  time  there  was  some  question  as  to 

1  Archive  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  365. 
?  Paramo,  op.  cit.  pp.  867  871. — Rod,  a  Cunha,  op.  cit.  A.  xxii.  n.  3. 


SOLICITATION  285 

this,  and  some  dialectics  as  to  fact  and  intention,  but  the 
question  was  settled  on  the  common-sense  basis  that  it 
would  be  a  greater  infliction  for  the  uncertain  than  for 
the  certain,  as  the  penalties  for  conviction  were  not  equal 
to  torture/  When,  however,  doctrinal  errors  led  to 
solicitation  there  was  no  hesitation  in  the  use  of  torture  to 
detect  the  aberrations  of  lUuminism,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
priest  Manuel  Madrigal,  voted  to  torture  to  discover 
intention,  "  por  solicitante,  Molinista  y  flagelante,"  by  the 
tribunal  of  Madrid  in  1725.^ 

There  was  also  the  broad  avenue  to  escape  in  the 
strictness  with  which  the  formulas  of  the  papal  utterances 
were  construed.  Solicitation  is  a  purely  technical  crime, 
based  on  inferential  misbelief  as  to  the  sacrament,  and  it 
is  wholly  unconnected  with  morals.  The  Church  cares 
nothing  as  to  the  relations  between  confessor  and  penitent 
so  long  as  the  confessional  and  the  sacrament  are  not 
involved,  and  even  there  the  confidences  deemed  necessary 
in  confession,  the  obligation  on  the  confessor  to  acquaint 
himself  with  all  details,  afford  ample  opportunity  for 
pruriency,  which  the  casuist  can  approve  or  condemn 
with  equal  facility.  All  this  is  one  of  the  incidents 
inseparable  from  auricular  confession,  and  the  Church 
can  only  make  the  best  of  it  with  vague  general  regula- 
tions, construed  and  enforced  by  imperfect  human  nature. 
The  decisive  importance  attached  to  locality  meets  one 
constantly  in  the  trials  of  these  cases.  In  that  of 
Fernandez  Pujalon,  parish  priest  of  Ciempozuelos,  before 
the  tribunal  of  Toledo,  in  1744,  he  confesses  to  vile 
indecencies  committed  with  his  penitent  Sor  Cayetana  de 
la  Providencia  in  the  convent  of  Santa  Clara,  and  chanced 

1  De  Sousa,  Aphorismi  Inquisit.  Lib.  r.  cap.  xxxviii.  n.  64,  65  ;  Ejusd.  Opusc. 
circa  Constit.  Pauli  PP.  V.  Tract,  ii.  cap.  13,  21. — Biblioteca  Nacional,  Seccion  de 
MSS.  V.  337,  cap.  xx.  §  9. — Archive  hist6rico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia, 
Legajo  61. 

2  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  876,  fol.  208. 


286  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

to  mention  that  once  in  the  parlour  of  the  convent  she 
said  that  she  never  indulged  in  this  in  the  confessional, 
but  that  it  was  bad  for  Padre  Colmenas  and  Sor  Antonia 
Blanca,  who  had  illicit  relations  in  the  confessional.  The 
tribunal  commissioned  the  superintendent  of  convents, 
Canon  Miguel  Barba,  to  examine  Sor  Cayetana  as  to 
when  he  should  next  visit  Ciempozuelos,  which  he  did  in 
1747,  but  she  naturally  did  not  care  to  implicate  herself; 
Barba  discreetly  did  not  push  his  investigations,  and  the 
matter  was  dropped.^  So,  in  the  case  of  Fray  Joseph 
Rives,  tried  in  Valencia  in  1741,  the  evidence  of  two  of  his 
penitents  shows  the  beastliness  of  the  practices  employed 
to  inflame  the  passions  of  the  women,  while  arguments  of 
his  advocate  are  devoted  to  prove  that  the  precautions 
which  he  took  to  evade  the  letter  of  the  papal  decrees 
proved  his  respect  for  the  sacrament,  and  that  technically 
he  was  not  guilty.  This  was  unavailing,  but  he  escaped 
with  deprivation  of  his  faculty  to  confess  and  three  years' 
exile  from  Valencia,  Bocayente,  and  all  royal  residences.^ 
It  was  to  meet  this  customary  line  of  defence  that  the 
tribunals,  in  their  instructions  as  to  taking  testimony, 
always  laid  special  stress  on  ascertaining  the  exact  spot 
where  the  incriminating  acts  occurred ;  what  would  be 
guilt  in  the  confessional  would  escape  animadversion 
elsewhere. 

Another  favour  shown  to  these  delinquents  was  that, 
in  place  of  being  shut  up  incoviunicado  in  the  secret  prison 
during  trial,  like  ordinary  heretics,  they  were  at  liberty  and 
could  devise  means  of  defence.  What  these  sometimes  were 
is  shown  in  the  case  of  a  priest  who  had  been  denounced, 
and  who  threatened  to  kill  the  confessor  who  had  sent  the 
denunciation  unless  he  would  write  that  the  women  had 

1  Archivo  hist6rico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Toledo,  Legajo  229,  n.  32. 

2  Archivo  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  365,  n.  45,  fol.  4. 
In  the  sentences  to  temporary  exile,  which  was  a  favourite  punishment  for  minor 

offences,  Madrid  and  royal  residences  are  always  included. 


SOLICITATION  287 

withdrawn  their  charges.  More  crafty  was  Dr.  Joseph 
Soriano,  vicar  of  Vinaroz,  in  1796,  against  whom  we  find 
pending  in  the  tribunal  of  Valencia  two  prosecutions,  one  for 
solicitation  and  another  for  the  ingenious  device  of  suborning 
several  women  to  denounce  him  and  then  to  retract.^ 

When,  in  spite  of  all  facilities  for  evasion,  conviction 
was  obtained,  the  punishment  meted  out  to  the  criminal 
was  singularly  disproportionate  to  the  moral  turpitude  of 
the  offence  and  its  damage  to  the  Church  and  to  society. 
In  the  first  place,  the  dread  of  scandal  shielded  him  from 
public  reprobation  and  the  shame  of  exposure,  thus 
exempting  him  from  what  in  Spain  was  one  of  the 
heaviest  penalties  visited  on  other  crimes — the  infamy 
inflicted  on  the  lineage  of  one  who  had  been  penanced  by 
the  Inquisition.  There  was  not  only  the  secrecy  in  which 
all  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Office  were  jealously 
guarded,  but  the  culprit  was  not  exposed  to  view  in  an 
auto  da  fe  like  ordinary  offenders — heretics,  bigamists, 
blasphemers,  petty  sorcerers,  and  the  like.  From  the 
earUest  period,  as  soon  as  the  form  of  procedure  was 
reduced  to  rule,  strict  injunctions  were  issued  that  the 
sentence  was  to  be  read  in  the  audience-chamber  with 
closed  doors,  the  only  witnesses  present  being  a  specified 
number  of  members  of  the  culprit's  Order,  if  he  were  a 
regular,  or  priests  of  parish  churches,  if  a  secular.  The 
same  instructions  prescribe  as  the  punishment  in  all  cases 
abjuration  for  Hght  suspicion  of  heresy  and  perpetual 
deprivation  of  the  faculty  of  confessing,  to  which  might  be 
added  others  suited  to  the  gravity  of  the  offence.  Thus 
for  frailes  there  might  be  a  discipHne  inflicted  in  his 
convent,  while  the  sentence  was  read  in  the  presence  of 
the  assembled  brethren,  or,  if  the   case  were  especially 

1  Archive    historico    nacional,    Inquisicion    de    Valencia,    Legajo   365,  n.    46  > 
Legajo  100. 


288  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

aggravated,  a  previous  one  in  the  audience-chamber  also ; 
there  might  further  be  seclusion  in  a  convent,  suspension 
or  deprivation  of  orders,  of  the  right  of  voting  and  being 
voted  for,  as  well  as  the  last  place  in  choir  and  refectory, 
together  with  penance  for  heavy  sin,  such  as  the  discipHne 
and  prayer.  For  secular  priests  there  might  be  exile  or 
seclusion,  or  suspension  or  deprivation  of  functions  and 
benefice,  together  with  fines  and  secret  discipline  and  fasts 
and  prayers/  As  regards  fines,  they  were  a  favourite 
penalty  for  all  offences,  as  they  accrued  to  the  tribunal 
inflicting  them.  They  could  not  be  imposed  on  the 
regulars,  who  held  nothing,  but  the  secular  priests  were 
sometimes  rich  and  were  valuable  culprits.  Thus  in  the 
case,  alluded  to  above,  of  Fernandez  Pujalon,  parish  priest 
of  Ciempozuelos,  a  feature  of  his  sentence  was  a  fine  of 
half  his  property,  but  his  guilt  was  greatly  enhanced  by 
some  heretical  propositions  that  he  had  uttered. 

Inadequate  as  all  this  may  seem  in  comparison  with 
the  penalties  habitually  imposed  by  the  Inquisition  on 
other  classes  of  offenders,  it  was  rarely  inflicted  to  the  full 
extent,  and  as  time  wore  on  there  appears  to  be  a  distinct 
tendency  to  regard  the  crime  with  increasing  leniency. 
The  indulgence,  indeed,  with  which  it  was  viewed,  in 
spite  of  the  rhetorical  horror  expressed  in  the  utterances 
of  popes  and  inquisitors,  is  reflected  in  the  adjuration  of  a 
Cunha  not  to  drive  the  delinquents  to  despair  nor  to 
impose  more  penalty  than  is  just,  and  he  thinks  that 
it  would  be  much  better  for  the  Inquisition  to  hand 
offenders  over  for  punishment  to  their  own  prelates.^  It 
is  impossible,  in  fact,  not  to  recognise  a  fellow  feeling 
and  a  certain  amount  of  sympathy,  as  for  a  matter  in 
which  any  priest  might  involve  himself,  but  the  temper 
in  which  the  Inquisition   exercised  the  jurisdiction  con- 

1  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  1465,  fol.  16. 

2  Rod.  a  Cunha,  op.  cit.  Q.  xxiv. 


SOLICITATION  289 

ferred  on  it  can  best  be  estimated  from  a  few  illustrative 
eases. 

In  1594,  in  Mexico,  the  Dominican  Fray  Thomas 
Maldonado  was  tried  on  the  evidence  of  five  of  his 
penitents.  He  made  no  defence,  except  alleging  that  his 
conduct  with  them  had  been  jocular,  and  he  presented 
witnesses  as  to  his  character,  especially  his  prior.  Fray 
Cristdval  de  Sepulveda,  all  of  whom  testified  to  his  being 
a  good  servant  of  God  and  a  man  of  irreproachable  life. 
While  the  trial  was  in  progress,  the  prior  asked  for  his 
release,  as  the  convent  wanted  his  services  to  take 
charge  of  some  mills,  to  which  the  tribunal  promptly 
assented.  Finally  he  was  sentenced  to  abjure  for  light 
suspicion,  to  be  deprived  of  confessing  women,  and  to  exile 
for  six  years  from  the  convent  of  Cuyvacan.^  It  is  evident 
that  his  offence  was  regarded  rather  in  the  light  of  an 
indiscretion  than  of  a  crime.  More  severe,  in  1674,  was 
the  sentence  in  Toledo  ofFray  Miguel  Martin  deEugenio, 
whose  powers  of  seduction  had  been  exercised  in  a  number 
of  places.  He  was  subjected  to  a  "  circular  discipline  "  in 
his  convent,  he  was  deprived  of  confessing  men  and  women, 
and  was  secluded  for  four  years  in  a  convent,  where  he 
was  to  have  the  last  place  in  choir  and  refectory  and  to  serve 
in  the  most  humble  positions  ;  during  the  first  year  he  had 
Friday  fasting  on  bread  and  water,  eating  on  the  floor  of 
the  refectory,  and  he  was  deprived  of  voting  and  being 
voted  for.^  As  regards  the  galleys,  the  only  case  that  I 
have  happened  to  meet  in  which  they  were  imposed  is  that 
of  the  licentiate  Lorenzo  de  Eldora,  who  was  suspended 
from  orders,  in  1691,  by  the  tribunal  of  Toledo,  and  con- 
demned to  the  galleys  for  five  years,  with  instructions  at 
the  expiration  of  the  term  to  present  himself  to  the 
inquisitors  for  further  orders  ;  but  he  was  evidently  deemed 
an  incorrigible  relapsed,  as  he  had  already  been  punished 

1  Proceso  de  Fray  Thomas  Maldonado  (MS.  penes  me). 

2  Archive  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Toledo,  Legajo  1. 

VOL.  II.  T 


290  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

for  the  same  offence  by  the  Inquisition  of  Granada.^  It 
must  have  treated  him  with  undeserved  leniency,  and  not 
have  deprived  him  of  the  faculty  of  confession. 

As  a  rule,  however,  the  sentences  were  moderate,  and 
grew  more  so  as  time  wore  on.  In  1647  the  Valladolid 
tribunal  considered  a  reprimand  sufficient  for  Padre 
Antonio  Escobar,  S.J.,  who  was  accused  by  a  nun  of  the 
Monasterio  de  la  Penitencia  of  Salamanca — a  reformatory 
for  loose  women — although  he  had  previously  been  de- 
nounced in  Logrono,  and  the  testimony  obtained  from 
there  revealed  almost  incredible  brutality  on  his  part  and 
on  that  of  Padre  Vilarde,  S.J.'  In  1649  the  tribunal  of 
Toledo  merely  deprived  the  licentiate  Bernardo  de  Amor 
of  the  faculty  of  confessing,  with  four  years  of  exile  from 
Madrid,  Toledo,  and  Andujar,  although  his  offence  was 
that  of  soliciting  youths  in  the  confessional.^ 

Progressive  leniency  is  seen  in  the  Toledo  case,  in  1763, 
of  Felipe  Garcia  Pacheco,  a  priest  with  various  dignities, 
who  was  condemned  only  to  seclusion  in  a  convent  for  six 
months,  and  was  left  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  dignities  and 
the  faculty  of  confession,  although  the  injunction  cautiously 
to  warn  his  accomplices  that  they  must  repeat  the  confes- 
sions made  to  him  shows  that  his  guilt  was  complete.* 
The  nineteenth  century  saw  no  increase  in  severity.  In 
1816  the  case  of  Dr.  Pedro  Luceta  must  have  been 
especially  foul,  for  when  his  sentence  was  read  before  the 
twelve  ecclesiastics  in  the  audience-chamber,  portions  of 
the  details  of  his  offences  were  ordered  to  be  omitted ;  but 
he  was  only  deprived  of  confessing,  with  some  spiritual 
exercises,  one  year's  seclusion,  and  five  years'  exile  from 
certain  places.  He  was  ungrateful  for  this  leniency,  and 
broke  his  seclusion,  which  was  a  more  serious  offence  than 

1  Archive  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Toledo,  Legajo  I. 

2  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Legajo  552,  fol.  35. 

3  Archivo  historico  nacional,  loo.  cit. 

4  Ibid.  Legajo  2. 


SOLICITATION  291 

solicitation,  for  he  was  then  sent  to  the  presideo  of  Ceuta 
(implying  hard  labour  as  in  the  bagne)  for  the  remainder 
of  the  six  years,  but  he  was  allowed  to  return  to  Algeciras 
on  the  plea  of  ill-health.^  In  this  same  year  the  tribunal 
of  Santiago,  in  sentencing  Gerdnimo  Gonzalez,  priest  of 
Requeijo,  speaks  of  his  enormes  delitas,  but  only  condemned 
him  to  spiritual  exercises,  a  suspension  of  three  months 
from  celebrating  mass,  of  one  year  from  confessing  men 
and  perpetually  women,  and  eight  years'  exile  from  certain 
places  ;  then,  within  three  months,  on  the  plea  of  ill-health, 
it  allowed  him  to  reside  with  his  parents  in  Requeijo,  warn- 
ing him  to  avoid  the  taverns  and  highways,  which  had  led 
to  his  misdeeds,  and  ordering  the  priest  there  to  keep  a 
watch  over  him.  The  case  in  1818  of  Fray  Antonio  de  la 
Porteria  y  Vela,  also  in  the  Santiago  tribunal,  must  have 
been  especially  atrocious,  for  he  was  perpetually  deprived 
of  both  confessing  and  preaching,  but  beyond  this  he  was 
subjected  only  to  temporary  exile  from  certain  places  and 
to  two  months'  seclusion  devoted  to  spiritual  exercises.^ 

As  in  Italy,  so  in  Spain,  a  favourite  device  to  disarm 
severity,  especially  when  accusation  was  expected,  was 
self-denunciation,  for  the  espontaneado,  as  he  was  called, 
earned  a  claim  to  merciful  consideration,  provided  always 
that  he  expressed  due  contrition  and  made  full  confession 
of  his  misdeeds.  A  very  large  portion  of  the  cases  tried 
by  the  Inquisition  are  of  this  character ;  in  one  list  of  a 
hundred  and  eight,  thirty-two,  or  thirty  per  cent.,  are 
esponianeados.^  The  customary  impulse  to  this  is  seen  in 
the  case  of  Fray  Nicholas  de  Madrid,  who  denounced 
himself  to  the  tribunal  of  Madrid,  8  June,  1757.  He  was 
a  trifle  tardy,  for  a  denunciation  against  him  had  been 
received  two  days  before.^ 

1  Archive  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Lib.  890  :  Lib  435,  n.  22. 

2  Ibid.  Lib.  890. 

3  Ibid.  Lib.  1006.  4  Ibid.  fol.  105. 


292  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  espontaneado  was  apt  to 
soften  the  details  of  his  guilt  and  extenuate  his  offences  as 
far  as  possible.  In  ordinary  Inquisitorial  procedure  this 
only  increased  the  culpability,  for  a  confession  which  was 
the  result  of  contrition  was  required  to  be  complete,  and 
the  di7ninuto  who  partly  withheld  or  palliated  his  faults 
was  but  a  hardened  sinner  seeking  to  escape  punishment. 
Confessors,  however,  were  not  ordinary  criminals.  It  is 
true  that,  in  the  earUer  period,  during  the  first  flush  of 
exercising  its  new  jurisdiction,  the  Inquisition  pursued  its 
ordinary  course  of  testing  the  confession  by  examining 
witnesses,  and  if  it  found  that  the  culprit  was  a  diminuto, 
his  self-denunciation  did  not  save  him  jprom  the  customary 
penalties,  but  this  severity  was  gradually  relaxed.  About 
1640,  an  experienced  inquisitor  lays  down  the  rule  that,  if 
a  confessor  accuses  himself  before  there  is  any  evidence 
against  him,  and  if  the  women  concerned  are  numerous, 
they  are  examined,  and  if  they  admit  it,  he  is  deprived  of 
confessing ;  if  they  deny,  as  sometimes  happens,  the  case 
is  suspended  mth  a  warning  to  him ;  if  there  is  but  one 
woman,  and  the  case  is  not  grave,  he  is  reprimanded 
without  other  penalty.  If  he  accuses  himself  before  there 
is  more  than  one  denunciation  against  him,  the  penalties 
are  lighter  than  if  he  had  not  done  so.^ 

It  could  not  have  been  long  after  this  that  the  Inquisi- 
tion manifested  its  indifference  by  simply  accepting  the 
self-denunciation  without  examining  the  women.  In  1669 
the  licentiate  Fernando  de  Valdes  denounced  himself  to 
the  tribunal  of  Santiago  for  having  solicited  in  confession, 
with  indecent  acts,  seven  single  and  three  married  women, 
to  whom,  in  a  subsequent  confession,  he  added  a  pregnant 

1  Biblioteca  Nacional  de  Espana,  Seccion  de  MSS.  V.  377,  cap.  xx.  §  8. 

Suspension  of  a  case  was  virtually  acquittal,  in  the  estilo  of  the  Inquisition,  which 
rarely  acquitted.  It,  however,  remained  on  record,  and  could  be  reopened  if  subse- 
quent testimony  came. 

Keprimand  and  warning  were  an  ordinary  feature  of  all  sentences  rendered  in  the 
sola  or  audience-chamber  of  a  tribunal. 


SOLICITATION  293 

woman  and  several  others  unmarried.  The  records  were 
examined,  and  no  previous  accusation  was  found  against 
him.  Without  summoning  the  witnesses,  the  tribunal 
reported  the  case  to  the  Supreme  Council,  which  ordered 
it  simply  to  be  suspended  and  the  culprit  to  be  repri- 
manded.^ The  fact  that  out  of  so  many  women  solicited 
not  one  accused  him  indicates  how  few  were  the  denuncia- 
tions in  comparison  with  the  offences.  The  indifference 
of  the  tribunals  grew  with  time.  In  1724,  Fray  Manuel 
Pablo  Herraiz  denounced  himself  to  the  tribunal  of  Toledo 
for  a  somewhat  complicated  illicit  connection  with  two 
penitents.  Inquiries  were  sent  to  the  other  tribunals,  with 
negative  results.  Without  further  action,  the  case  was 
laid  aside,  and  in  1732  the  fiscal  or  prosecuting  officer 
reported  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  be  done  with  it.^ 
These  cases  indicate  that  the  only  danger  incurred  by  the 
esponianeado  was  that  some  previous  denunciation  might 
be  lying  in  the  records  awaiting  a  second,  provided  the 
tribunal  took  the  trouble  to  make  inquiry. 

In  time  even  this  seems  to  have  been  abandoned,  and 
so  completely  did  it  come  to  be  understood  that  the 
esponianeado  was  not  to  be  prosecuted  that,  in  1783,  the 
Supreme  Council  interrogated  the  tribunals,  asking 
whether  they  suspended  such  cases  or  dismissed  the  self- 
accuser  with  abjuration  and  absolution.^  So  it  continued 
until  the  extinction  of  the  Inquisition.  In  1815,  Padre 
Fray  Francisco  Gdmez  Somoerotro,  sacristan  mayor  of 
the  Mercenarian  convent  of  Madrid,  denounced  himself  to 
that  tribunal  for  solicitation  and  doctrines  suspect  of 
Molinism,  and  his  case  was  suspended.  In  1819  he  was 
denounced  for  solicitation  to  the  tribunal  of  Valladolid, 
and  again  the  case  was  suspended.* 

1  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion  de  Santiago,  Relaciones  de  Causas,  Legajo  1. 

2  Archivo  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Toledo,  Legajo  229,  n.  40. 

3  Ibid.  Inquisicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  16,  n.  6,  fol.  4. 
*  Archivo  de  Simancas,  Inquisicion,  Lib.  1002. 


294  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

No  class  of  ecclesiastics,  privileged  to  hear  confessions, 
was  exempt  from  this  contaminating  sin,  but  the  great 
mass  of  culprits  belonged  to  the  regular  Orders.  Llorente 
explains  that  the  secular  priests,  having  comparative 
wealth  and  freedom,  were  able  to  gratify  I  heir  passions  in 
ways  less  dangerous,  and  that  it  was  precisely  the  Orders 
that  were  most  rigid  which  produced  the  greatest  number 
of  culprits/  To  verify  this  last  assertion  would  require 
statistics  of  the  different  Orders  now  unattainable,  and  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  degree  to  which  they  devoted 
themselves  to  the  duties  of  the  confessional.  A  factor  in 
their  activity  was  the  special  faculties  granted  to  the 
mendicant  Orders  to  absolve  for  cases  reserved  to  the 
Holy  See,  except  those  included  in  the  Coena  Domini  bull 
and  six  others  specified  in  a  decree  of  Clement  VIII.  in 
1601 — these  mendicant  Orders  being  Dominicans,  Fran- 
ciscans, Augustinians,  Carmelites,  Minims,  Jesuits,  and 
Servites.^  This,  of  course,  rendered  their  ministrations 
more  attractive,  and  secured  them  a  larger  number  of 
penitents,  which  helps  to  explain  their  undue  proportion 
of  offenders.  In  analysing  an  aggregate  of  3775  cases  I 
find  that  the  great  body  of  the  secular  clergy,  including 
parish  priests,  vicars,  canons,  &c.,  contributed  only  981, 
while  the  regular  Orders  furnished  2794.^ 

.  Spain  was  the  only  land  in  which  solicitation  was 
systematically  prosecuted  where  the  conditions  were  such 
as  to  remove  some  of  the  impediments  to  denunciation, 
and  where  the  records  are  accessible.  If  any  methods 
could  reduce  the  abuse  to  a  minimum,  it  was  there,  and, 
from  what  we  learn  as  to  its  prevalence  in  Spain,  we  may 
reasonably  infer  that  in  other  countries,  where  no  such 

1  Llorente,  Historia  Critica,  cap.  xxviil.  art.  1,  n.  14. 

2  Tiimarchi,,  op.  cit.  p.  279. 

3  Archivo  historico  nacional,  Inquisicion  de  Toledo,  Legajo  233,  MS.  108  ;  Inqui- 
sicion  de  Valencia,  Legajo  66. — Archivo    de    Simancas,    Inquisicion,    Lib.    1002, 


SOLICITATION  295 

machinery  existed  for  its  discovery  and  repression,  it  was 
even  more  prevalent. 

It  is  thus  only  in  the  records  of  the  Inquisition  that  an 
insight  can  be  gained  into  this  phase  of  ecclesiastical 
development,  which  has  always  been  shrouded  from  public 
view  with  such  anxious  care.  In  exploring  these  records 
one  seems  to  live  in  a  world  of  brutal  lust,  where  disregard 
of  the  moral  law  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course  by  all 
parties,  where  the  aim  of  the  confessor  is  to  inflame  the 
passions  by  act  and  speech,  or  to  overcome  resistance  by 
coarse  \iolence ;  where  women  regard  it  as  natural  that 
the  awful  authority  of  the  priesthood  is  to  be  exercised  to 
their  undoing,  and  their  consciences  are  to  be  soothed 
with  pardon  granted  in  the  name  of  God  by  the  hypocrite 
who  has  destroyed  their  honour  ;  and  where  the  inquisitor 
busies  himself,  not  with  the  moral  and  spiritual  questions 
involved,  but  with  ascertaining  whether  certain  technical 
rules  have  been  violated.  I  have  spared  the  reader  all 
details,  for  the  most  debased  pornographic  Hterature  can 
have  nothing  more  foul  to  offer,  and  the  divorce  of  morals 
from  religion  is  complete. 

Morals,  in  fact,  have  nothing  to  do  with  solicitation  as 
viewed  by  the  Church.  The  priest  can  indulge  his  passions 
with  his  penitents  in  safety,  so  long  as  he  commits  no 
technical  offence  and  so  long  as  the  danger  of  scandal 
is  not  incurred.  The  Church  sees  nothing  specially  sinful 
in  solicitation  itself,  notwithstanding  the  vehement  rhetoric 
of  papal  utterances.  In  the  forum  of  conscience  it  is 
classed  with  simple  fornication — a  mortal  sin  indeed,  for 
in  lust  there  is  no  parvitas  viaterice,  but  one  not  calling 
for  any  special  reprobation.  Heinous  offences  are  dis- 
tinguished by  being  "reserved" — that  is,  absolution  for 
them  can  be  obtained  only  from  the  Holy  See  or  from  the 
sinner's  prelate.  The  Holy  See  has  never  reserved  to 
itself  the  sin  of  seducing  a  penitent  in  the  confessional. 


296  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Bishops  have  power  in  their  dioceses  to  reserve  to  them- 
selves what  sins  they  choose,  and  occasionally  some  puritan 
prelate  has  done  so  with  this.  In  1635,  while  the  bull  of 
Gregory  XV.  was  still  the  subject  of  discussion,  Trimarchi 
tells  us  that  it  was  thus  reserved  in  the  provinces  of 
Geneva  and  Benevento,  and  in  some  dioceses  of  Naples, 
but  nowhere  else.^  The  consequence  of  this  is  that 
absolution  can  be  given  by  any  confessor,  and  the  culprit 
is  told  that  he  need  only  confess  to  simple  fornication, 
without  mentioning  that  it  has  been  with  his  spiritual 
daughter.  He  therefore  obtains  pardon  from  God  on  the 
easiest  possible  terms,  his  conscience  is  clear,  and  he  is 
ready  to  repeat  the  offence.  This  forms  a  strange  contrast 
with  the  excommunication  directed  against  the  victim  who 
fails  to  denounce  her  seducer,  for  this  is  reserved  to  the 
Holy  See,  and  we  are  expressly  told  that  the  censures  of 
the  bulls  are  directed  against  her  and  not  against  him.^ 
May  we  not  attribute  all  this  to  a  callousness  eagendered 
by  the  prevalence  of  concubinage  among  a  celibate  priest- 
hood, where  the  woman  must  in  almost  all  cases  necessarily 
be  the  penitent  of  the  priest  and  thus  be  his  spiritual 
daughter  ? 

1  Trimarchi,  op.  cit.  p.  272. 

2  Trimarchi,  p.  273. — Ant.  de  Sousa,  op.  cit.  Tract.  Ii.  cap.  xx.— Job.  Sanchez, 
Disputationes  Selectae,  Disp.  xi.  n.  3,  4  (Lugduni,  1636). — Potestatis  Examen.  Ecclesi- 
asticum,  T.  II.  n.  601  (Venetiis,  1728). 

For  the  modern  aspect  of  this  subject  see  below,  in  chapter  xxxii. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

If  the  Council  of  Trent  had  thus  failed  utterly  in  its 
efforts  to  create  that  which  had  never  existed — purity  of 
morals  under  the  rule  of  celibacy — it  had  at  length 
succeeded  in  its  more  important  task  of  putting  an  end 
to  the  aspirations  of  the  clergy  for  marriage.  With  the 
anathema  for  heresy  confronting  them,  few  could  be  found 
so  bold  as  openly  to  dispute  the  propriety  of  a  law  which 
had  been  incorporated  into  the  articles  of  faith,  and  the 
ingenious  sophistries  and  far-fetched  logic  of  Bellarmine 
were  reverently  received  and  accepted  as  incontrovertible. 
Urbain  Grandier  might  endeavour  to  quiet  the  conscience 
of  his  morganatic  spouse  by  writing  a  treatise  to  prove  the 
lawfulness  of  priestly  wedlock,  but  he  took  care  to  keep 
the  manuscript  carefully  locked  in  his  desk.^    A  man  of 

1  When  Grandier  was  arrested  and  tried  for  sorcery,  his  papers  were  seized,  and 
among  them  was  found  an  essay  against  sacerdotal  celibacy.  Under  torture,  he 
confessed  that  he  had  written  it  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  the  conscience  of  a 
woman  with  whom  he  had  maintained  marital  relations  for  seven  years  (Hist,  des 
Diables  de  Loudun,  pp.  85,  191).  The  manuscript  was  burnt,  with  its  unlucky 
author,  but  a  copy  was  preserved,  which  has  been  printed  (Petite  Biblioth^que 
des  Curieux,  Paris,  1866).  In  it  Grandier  shows  himself  singularly  bold  for  a  man 
of  his  time  and  station.  The  law  of  nature,  or  moral  law,  he  holds  to  be  the  direct 
exposition  of  the  Divine  will.  By  it  revealed  law  must  necessarily  be  interpreted, 
and  to  its  standard  ecclesiastical  law  must  be  made  to  conform.  He  evidently 
was  made  to  be  burned  as  a  heretic,  if  he  had  escaped  as  a  sorcerer.  The  promise 
of  chastity  exacted  at  ordination  he  regards  as  extorted,  and  therefore  as  not 
binding  on  those  unable  to  keep  it  ;  while  he  does  not  hesitate  to  assume  that 
the  rule  itself  was  adopted  and  enforced  on  purely  temporal  grounds — "  de  crainte 
qu'en  remnant  une  pierre  on  n'esbranlat  la  puissance  papale ;  car  hors  cette  con- 
sideration d'Estat,  I'Eglise  romaine  pense  assez  que  le  celibat  n'est  pas  d'institution 
divine  ni  necessaire  au  salut,  puisqu'elle  en  dispense  les  particuliers,  ce  qu'elle  ne 
pourroit  faire  si  le  celibat  avoiteste  ordonne  d'en  haut"  (pp.  34-5). 


298  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

bold  and  independent  spirit,  fortified  by  unfathomable 
learning,  like  Louis  Ellies  Du  Pin,  might  secretly  favour 
marriage,  and  perhaps  might  contract  matrimony.^  Du 
Pin's  great  antagonist,  Bossuet,  might  incur  a  similar 
imputation,  and  be  ready  to  partially  yield  the  point  if 
thereby  he  might  secure  the  reconciliation  of  the  hostile 
Churches.^  All  this,  however,  could  have  no  influence  on 
the  doctrines  and  practice  of  Catholicism  at  large,  and  the 
principle  remained  unaltered  and  unalterable. 

Yet  it  was  impossible  that  the  critical  spirit  of  inquiry 
which  marked  the  eighteenth  century,  its  boldness  of 
unbelief,  and  its  utter  want  of  faith  in  God  and  man,  could 
leave  unassailed  this  monument  of  primeeval  asceticism, 
while  it  was  so  busy  in  undermining  everything  to  which 
the  reverence  of  its  predecessors  had  clung.  Accordingly, 
the  latter  half  of  the  century  witnessed  an  active  contro- 
versy on  the  subject.  In  1758,  a  canon  of  Estampes, 
named  Desforges,  who  had  been  forced  to  take  orders  by 
his  family,  published  a  work  in  two  volumes  in  which  he 
attempted  to  prove  that  marriage  was  necessary  for  all 

1  Notwithstanding  his  Sorbonne  degree,  Du  Pin  is  said  to  have  been  secretly 
married,  and  to  have  left  a  widow,  who  even  ventured  to  claim  the  inheritance  of 
his  estate.  He  was  engaged  in  a  correspondence  with  William  Wake,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  with  a  view  to  arrange  a  basis  of  reconciliation  of  the  Anglican 
Church  with  Rome,  and,  according  to  Lafitau,  Bishop  of  Sisteron,  in  that  correspond- 
ence he  assented  to  the  propriety  of  sacerdotal  marriage. 

2  I  cannot  pretend  to  decide  the  controversy  as  to  the  alleged  marriage  between 
Bossuet  and  Mile.  Desvieux  de  Mauleon,  nor  to  determine  whether  it  is  true  that 
she  and  her  daughters  claimed  his  fortune  after  his  death.  Much  has  been  written 
on  both  sides,  and  I  have  not  the  materials  at  hand  to  justify  a  positive  opinion, 
though  the  extracts  from  La  Baumelle's  "  Memoires  de  Madame  de  Maintenon  " 
given  by  the  Abbe  Chavard  (Le  Celibat  des  Pretres,  pp.  474  sqq.)  would  seem  to 
show  that  there  were  good  grounds  for  asserting  the  marriage.  I  believe,  however, 
that  there  is  no  doubt  of  Bossuet  engaging  with  Leibnitz  and  Molanus  in  a  negotia- 
tion as  to  the  terms  on  which  the  Lutherans  could  re-enter  the  Roman  communion, 
and  that  he  promised,  in  the  name  of  the  Pope,  that  Lutheran  ministers  admitted  to 
the  priesthood  or  episcopate  should  retain  their  wives.  It  is  asserted  that  the  pro. 
posed  arrangement  was  nearly  agreed  to  on  both  sides,  when  the  pretensions  of  the 
House  of  Hanover  to  the  English  crown  caused  Leibnitz  to  withdraw  from  the  under- 
taking. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  299 

ranks  of  ecclesiastics.  The  book  attracted  attention,  and 
by  order  of  the  Parlement  it  was  burnt,  30  September, 
1758,  by  the  hangman,  and  the  unlucky  author  was  thrown 
into  the  Bastile.  These  proceedings  were  well  calculated 
to  give  publicity  to  the  work  :  it  was  reprinted  at  Douay 
in  1772 ;  a  German  translation  was  published  in  1782  at 
Gottingen  and  Munster,  and  an  Italian  one,  with  some 
omissions,  had  already  appeared  in  1770,  without  an 
acknowledged  place  of  publication.  The  Abbe  Villiers 
undertook  to  answer  Desforges  in  a  weak  httle  volume, 
the  "  Apologie  du  Cdlibat  Chretien,"  pubHshed  in  1762, 
which  consists  principally  of  long  extracts  from  the  Fathers 
in  praise  of  virginity.  Even  Italy  felt  the  movement,  and 
an  anonymous  work,  entitled  "  Pregiudizi  del  Celibato," 
appeared  in  Naples  in  1765,  and  was  reprinted  in  Venice 
in  1766.  Some  more  competent  champion  was  necessary 
to  answer  these  repeated  attacks,  and  the  learned  Abate 
Zaccaria  brought  his  fertile  pen  and  his  inexhaustible 
erudition  to  the  rescue  in  his  "  Storia  Polemica  del  Celi- 
bato Sacro,"  which  saw  the  light  in  1774,  and  which  not 
long  afterwards  was  translated  into  German.  In  1781 
appeared  a  new  aspirant  for  matrimonial  liberty  in  the 
Abb^  Gaudin,  who  issued  at  Geneva  (Lyons)  his  work 
entitled  "Les  inconveniens  du  ceUbat  des  pretres,"  a 
treatise  of  considerable  learning  and  no  little  bitterness 
against  the  whole  structure  of  sacerdotalism  and  Roman 
supremacy.  This  was  followed,  in  1782,  by  Andreas 
Forster,  in  his  "  De  Coelibatu  Clericorum  Dissertatio," 
published  at  Dillingen,  and  dedicated  to  Pius  VI.,  for  the 
purpose  of  replying  to  the  attacks  of  the  innovating 
Catholics. 

The  latter,  indeed,  had  some  hope  for  the  approaching 
realisation  of  their  demands.  The  reforms  which  illus- 
trated the  minority  of  Ferdinand  IV.  of  Naples  excited  the 
priests  of  Southern  Italy  to  petition  him  for  the  right  of 


300  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

marriage,  and  Serrao,  the  Jansenist  Bishop  of  Potenza, 
does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  request  would  have  been 
granted  if  the  unfriendly  relations  between  the  courts  of 
Rome  and  Naples  had  continued  much  longer.^  The 
Emperor  Joseph  II.,  amid  his  many  fruitless  schemes  for 
philosophical  reform,  inclined  seriously  to  the  notion  of 
permitting  marriage  to  the  priesthood  of  his  dominions. 
In  an  edict  of  1783  he  asserted  incidentally  that  the 
matter  was  subject  to  his  control,^  and  the  advocates  for 
clerical  marriage  confidently  expected  that  in  a  very  short 
period  they  would  see  the  ancient  restrictions  swept 
away  by  the  imperial  power.  A  mass  of  controversial 
essays  and  dissertations  made  their  appearance  throughout 
Germany,  and  the  well-known  Protestant  theologian 
Henke  took  the  opportunity  of  bringing  out,  in  1783,  a 
new  edition  of  the  learned  work  of  Calixtus,  "  De  Con- 
jugio  Clericorum,"  as  the  most  efficient  aid  to  the  good 
cause.  It  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  temper  of  the 
times  to  observe  that  this  work,  so  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
orthodox  doctrines  and  practice,  is  dedicated  by  Henke 
to  Archdeacon  Anthony  Ganoczy,  canon  of  the  cathedral 
church  of  Gross- Wardein  and  apostolic  prothonotary. 
The  hope  of  success  brought  out  other  writers,  and  the 
movement  made  sufficient  progress  to  cause  some  hesi- 
tation in  Rome  as  to  the  propriety  of  yielding  to  the 
pressure.^ 

1  Chavard,  Le  Celibat  des  Pretres,  p.  314-5. — Davanzali,  Bishop  of  Canossa,  was 
also  in  favour  of  abrogating  the  rule  of  celibacy. 

2  This  view  of  the  competence  of  the  temporal  power  to  regulate  the  question 
seems  to  have  been  widely  received  at  this  period.  An  anonymous  work  published 
in  1769  under  the  title  of  "  Recherches  sur  I'Etat  Monastique  et  Ecclesiastique," 
written  by  a  good  Catholic,  asserts  (p.  204),  "  Si  le  cas  de  donner  des  citoyens  k  la 
patrie  devenoit  urgent,  le  legislateur,  en  autorisant  le  mariage  des  pretres,  n'entre- 
prendroit  rien  sur  le  sacrement  de  I'Ordre." 

3  Zaccaria,  in  the  introduction  to  his  "Nuova  Giustificazione  "  (p.  ix.),  denies 
that  the  papal  court  entertained  any  idea  of  making  the  concession  ;  but,  in  con- 
sidering the  question  as  to  the  power  or  duty  of  the  Pope  to  alter  the  law  of 
celibacy  (Diss.  iv.  cap.  6),  his  remarks  show  clearly  that  the  subject  was  discussed 
in  a  tone  to  afford  the  partisans  of  marriage  reasonable  grounds  for  hope. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  301 

Zaccaria  again  entered  the  lists,  and  produced,  in 
1785,  his  "  Nuova  Giustificazione  del  Celibato  Sacro," 
in  answer  to  the  Abbd  Gaudin  and  to  an  anonymous 
German  writer  whose  work  had  produced  considerable 
sensation.  To  this  he  was  principally  moved  by  a  report 
that  he  had  himself  been  converted  by  the  facts  and  argu- 
ments advanced  by  the  German,  an  imputation  which  he 
indignantly  refuted  in  three  hundred  quarto  pages. 

The  half- formed  resolutions  of  Joseph  II.  led  to  no 
result,  and  the  subject  slumbered  for  a  few  years  until  the 
outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution.  At  an  early  period 
in  that  great  movement,  the  adversaries  of  sacerdotal 
asceticism  bestirred  themselves  in  bringing  to  public 
attention  the  evils  and  cruelty  of  the  system.  Already, 
in  1789,  a  mass  of  pamphlets  appeared  urging  the  abro- 
gation of  celibacy.  In  1790  the  work  of  the  Abbe 
Gaudin  was  reprinted,  and  was  promptly  answered  by 
the  prohfic  Maultrot.  Even  in  Germany  the  same  spirit 
again]  awoke,  and  a  Hungarian  priest  named  Katz  pub- 
lished at  Vienna,  in  1791,  a  "  Tractatus  de  conjugio  et 
coelibatu  clericorum,"  in  which  he  argued  strongly  for  a 
change.  In  Poland  these  doctrines  made  considerable 
progress,  for  in  1801  we  find  a  little  tract  issued  at 
Warsaw  vehemently  arguing  against  those  who  imperil 
their  souls  by  violating  their  vows  and  the  laws  of  the 
Church.^  In  England  a  Catholic  priest  distinguished  for 
talents  and  learning.  Dr.  Geddes,  published  in  1800  a 
work  in  which  he  denied  the  apostolic  origin  of  celibacy, 
and  urged  that,  at  most,  delinquents  should  only  be 
punished  by  degradation  from  the  priesthood,  without 
disgrace.  Indeed,  he  argued  that  the  rule  caused  more 
proselytes  to  Protestantism  than  any  other  cause.^ 

1  Vetus  et  Constans  in  Ecclesia  Catholica  de  Sacerdotum  Coelibatu  Doctrina, 
Varsaviae,  1801. 

2  "A  Modest  Apology  for  the  Catholics  of  Great  Britain,"  published  anonymously 
in  1800 — a  work  singularly  moderate  and  candid  in  its  tone.     Dr.  Geddes  had  been 


302  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

During  this  period  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  the 
defiant  immorahty  which  characterised  the  eighteenth 
century  had  been  favourable  to  the  purity  of  a  celibate 
priesthood.  That  the  Church,  indeed,  had  made  but 
scanty  improvement  in  the  character  of  its  ministers  is 
visible  throughout  the  literature  of  the  age,  and  I  need 
only  allude  to  a  few  instances  where  efforts  at  reform 
revealed  the  prevailing  corruption. 

In  France  the  attacks  upon  the  vow  of  celibacy,  to 
which  allusion  has  already  been  made,  seem  to  have  given 
rise  to  a  spasmodic  attempt  to  regulate  the  Church.  In 
1760  an  arret  of  the  Parlement  of  Paris  prohibited  the 
organisation  of  religious  congregations  without  express 
royal  permission,  verified  by  that  body.  The  assembly  of 
the  clergy  in  Paris  in  1766  produced  no  notable  improve- 
ment, nor  was  greater  success  obtained  when  the  temporal 
power  intervened  in  the  edicts  of  1766  and  1767.  Further 
effort  apparently  was  requisite,  and  in  the  edict  of  March 
1768,  Louis  XV.  undertook  to  diminish  in  some  degree 
the  causes  of  the  more  flagrant  disorders  among  the 
regular  clergy.  Men  were  not  to  be  allowed  to  take  the 
vows  under  the  age  of  twenty-two,  nor  women  under  nine- 
teen ;  and  as  the  smaller  religious  houses  were  especially 
notorious  for  laxness  of  discipline,  all  were  suppressed 
which  could  not  number  at  least  fifteen  professed  monks 
or  nuns,  except  those  attached  to  larger  congregations. 
The  ecclesiastical  authorities,  moreover,  were  emphatically 
commanded  to  make  a  thorough  visitation,  and  to  compel 
the  observance  of  the  rules  of  discipline  of  the  several 
Orders.^  The  enforcement  of  this  edict  created  no  little 
excitement,  and  several  of  the  smaller  Orders  narrowly 
escaped   destruction  in  their    endeavours    to    evade    its 

suspended  from  his  functions  in  consequence  of  a  translation  of  the  Bible  which  he 
had  published.     See  AUibone's  Dictionary,  I.  657. 

1  Dupin,  Manuel  du  Droit  Pub.   Eccles.  Fran^aise,  4th  Ed.  Paris,  1845,  p.  274. — 
Edit  de  Mars  1768,  concernant  les  Ordres  Religieux  (Isambert,  XXIII.  476). 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  303 

provisions.  That  these  efforts  did  not  succeed  in  accom- 
pHshing  their  object  we  may  well  beheve,  even  without  the 
testimony  of  an  eye-witness.^  As  for  the  secular  clergy, 
when  Louis  XV.  amused  himself  by  ordering  the  arrest  of 
all  ecclesiastics  caught  frequenting  brothels,  the  number  of 
victims  in  a  short  time  amounted  to  296,  of  whom  no  fewer 
than  100  were  priests  actively  engaged  in  the  service  of 
the  altar.  ^ 

When  the  Grand-Duke  Leopold  of  Tuscany  undertook 
to  reform  the  monasteries  of  his  dominions  and  to  put  an 
end,  if  possible,  to  the  abuse  of  the  confessional,  it  led  to 
a  long  diplomatic  correspondence  with  the  papal  curia  as 
to  the  jurisdiction  over  such  cases.  A  public  document  of 
the  year  1763  had  already  stated  that  the  special  crime  in 
question  had  become  less  frequent,  and  attributed  this 
improvement  to  the  exceeding  laxity  of  morals  everywhere 
prevalent,  for  few  confessors  would  be  so  foolish  as  to 
attempt  seduction  in  the  confessional  when  there  was  so 
little  risk  in  doing  the  same  thing  elsewhere.^  Specious 
as  this  reasoning  might  seem,  the  facts  on  which  it  was 
based  were  hardly  borne  out  by  the  investigations  of 
Leopold  shortly  after  into  the  morals  of  the  monastic 
establishments.  Nothing  more  scandalous  is  to  be  found 
in  the  visitations  of  the  religious  houses  of  England  under 
Morton  and  Cromwell.  The  spiritual  directors  of  the 
nunneries  had  converted  them  virtually  into  harems,  and 
such  of  the  sisters  as  were  proof  against  seduction  armed 
with  the  powers  of  confession  and  absolution,  suffered 
every  species  of  persecution.  It  was  rare  for  them  to 
venture  on  complaint,  but  when  they  did  so  they  received 
no  attention  from  their  ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  only 
the   protection   of  the   grand-ducal   authority   at  length 

1  See  Lasteyrie's  Hist,  of  Auricular  Confession,  translated  by  Cocks,  London, 
1848,  Book  II.  chap,  iv.,  vi. 

2  Bouvet,  De  la  Confession  et  du  Celibat  des  Pretres,  Paris,  1845,  p.  504. 

3  Archives  of  Florence — Segreterio  di  Stato  nella  Reggenza,  Filza  194,  No.  6. 


304  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

emboldened  them  to  reveal  the  truth.  The  prioress  of 
S.  Caterina  di  Pistoia  declared  that,  with  three  or  four 
exceptions,  all  the  monks  and  confessors  with  whom  she 
had  met  in  her  long  career  were  alike ;  that  they  treated 
the  nuns  as  wives,  and  taught  them  that  God  had  made 
man  for  woman  and  woman  for  man ;  and  that  the  visita- 
tions of  the  bishops  amounted  to  naught,  even  though 
they  were  aware  of  what  occurred,  for  the  mouths  of 
the  victims  were  sealed  by  the  dread  of  excommunication 
threatened  by  their  spiritual  directors/  When  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  convents  thus  converted  into  dens  of 
prostitution  were  the  favourite  schools  to  which  the  girls 
of  the  higher  classes  were  sent  for  training  and  education, 
it  can  readily  be  imagined  what  were  the  moral  influences 
thence  radiating  throughout  society  at  large,  and  we  can 
appreciate  the  argument  above  referred  to,  as  to  the  ease 
with  which  the  clergy  could  procure  sexual  indulgence 
without  recourse  to  the  confessional.  Leopold's  chief 
assistant  in  this  struggle  was  Scipione  de'  Ricci,  Bishop  of 
Pistoia  and  Prato,  whose  experiences  in  the  investigation 
caused  him  to  induce  the  Council  of  Pistoia,  in  1786,  to 
declare  the  duties  of  the  confessional  wholly  incompatible 
with  the  monastic  state,  and,  in  view  of  the  improbability 
of  any  permanent  reform,  to  propose  the  abolition  of  the 
monastic  Orders  by  restricting  vows  to  the  duration  of  a 
twelvemonth  ^ — propositions  which  were  not  approved  by 
the  congregation  of  Tuscan  prelates  held  at  Florence  in 
1787,  and  which  were  scornfully  condemned  by  Rome.^ 
Leopold,  however,  sought  to  palliate  the  evil  by  raising  to 
the  age  of  twenty-four  the  minimum  limit  for  taking  the 
vows,  which  the  Council  of  Trent  had  fixed  at  sixteen,  but 

1  De  Potter,  Mdmoires  de  Scipion  de'  Ricci,  I.  284  sqq. 

3  Atti  e  Decreti  del  Concilio  di  Pistoja  dell'  anno  1786,  Pistoja,  4to,  pp.  237, 
239. 

3  Acta  Congr.  Archiep.  et  Episc.  Hetrurise  Sess.  xviii.  (Bambergae,  1790,  T.  I. 
p.  453).— Bull.  Auctorem  fidei  ann.  1794  §§  80-84. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  305 

the  benefit  of  this  salutary  measure  was  neutralised  by  the 
ease  with  which  parents  desiring  to  get  rid  of  their 
children  could  place  them  in  the  institutions  of  the  neigh- 
bouring states,  such  as  Lucca  and  Modena.^ 

Rome  itself  was  no  better  than  its  dependent  provinces, 
despite  the  high  personal  character  of  some  of  the  pontiffs. 
When  the  too  early  death  of  Clement  XIV.,  in  1774,  cut 
short  the  hopes  which  had  been  excited  by  his  enlightened 
rule,  St.  Alphonso  Liguori  addressed  to  the  conclave 
assembled  for  the  election  of  his  successor  a  letter  urging 
them  to  make  such  a  choice  as  would  afford  reasonable 
prospect  of  accomplishing  the  much-needed  reform.  The 
saint  did  not  hesitate  to  characterise  the  discipline  of  the 
secular  clergy  as  most  grievously  lax,  and  to  proclaim 
that  a  general  reform  of  the  ecclesiastical  body  was  the 
only  way  to  remove  the  fearful  corruption  of  the  morals 
of  the  laity.  ^  When  we  hear,  about  this  time,  of  two 
CarmeUte  convents  at  Rome,  one  male  and  the  other  female, 
which  had  to  be  pulled  down  because  underground  passages 
had  been  established  between  them,  by  means  of  which 
the  monks  and  nuns  lived  in  indiscriminate  licentiousness, 
and  when  we  read  the  scandalous  stories  which  were 
current  in  Roman  society  about  prelates  high  in  the 
Church,  we  can  readily  appreciate  the  denunciations  of 
St.  Alphonso.*  A  curious  glimpse  at  the  interior  of  con- 
ventual life  is  furnished  by  a  manual  for  Inquisitors, 
written  about  this  period  by  an  official  of  the  Holy  Office 
of  Rome.  In  a  chapter  on  nuns  he  describes  the  scandals 
which  often  cause  them  to  fall  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Inquisition,  and  prescribes  the  course  to  be  pursued 
with  regard  to  the  several  offences.  Among  those  who 
were  forced  to  take  the  veil,  despair  frequently  led  to  the 

1  Chiesi  (Kivista  Cristiana,  Die.  1876  p.  470).— Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxv.  De 
Reg.  et  Mon.  cap.  xv. 

2  Panzini,  Confessione  di  un  Prigioniero,  p.  333. 

3  Vie  de  Scipion  de'  Ricci  I.  289  :  II.  373  sqq. 

VOL.  II.  U 


306  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

denial  of  God,  of  heaven,  and  of  hell ;  feminine  enmity 
caused  accusations  of  sorcery  and  witchcraft,  which  threw 
not  only  the  nunneries,  but  whole  cities,  into  confusion ; 
vain-glory  of  sanctity  suggested  pretended  revelations  and 
visions  ;  and  these  latter  were  also  not  infrequently  caused 
by  licentiousness,  for  in  these  utterances  were  sometimes 
taught  doctrines  utterly  subversive  of  morality,  of  which 
godless  confessors  took  advantage  to  teach  their  spiritual 
daughters  that  there  was  no  sin  in  sexual  intercourse.  As 
in  Spain,  it  was  the  practice  of  the  Roman  Inquisition  to 
treat  the  offenders  mildly,  partly  in  consideration  of  the 
temptations  to  which  they  were  exposed,  and  partly  to 
avoid  scandal.^  The  contaminating  influence  on  society 
at  large,  emanating  from  a  Church  so  incurably  corrupted, 
was  vastly  heightened  by  the  overgrown  numbers  of  the 
clerical  body.  In  1775,  for  example,  a  census  of  the  terra- 
firma  provinces  of  Venice  showed  in  that  narrow  territory 
no  less  than  45,773  priests,  or  one  to  every  fifty  inhabitants, 
while  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  exclusive  of  Sicily,  there 
were,  in  1769,  one  to  every  seventy-six.^  Such  over- 
crowding as  this  was  not  only  in  itself  an  eflicient  cause 
of  disorder,  but  intensified  incalculably  the  power  of 
infection. 

The  virtues  of  the  clergy,  therefore,  could  offer  but  a 
feeble  barrier  to  the  spirit  of  innovation  when  the  passions 
of  the  French  Revolution  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
immunities  and  distinctive  laws  of  the  Church.  The  attack 
commenced  on  that  which  had  been  the  strength,  but 
which  was  now  the  weakness,  of  the  ecclesiastical  estab- 
lishment. As  early  as  10  August,  1789,  preliminary  steps 
were  taken  in  the  National  Assembly  to  appropriate  the 
property  of  the  Church  to  meet  the  deficit  which  had  been 

1  Prattica  del  Modo  da  procedersi  nelle  cause  del  S.  Offitio,  cap.  xxv.  (MS.  Bibl. 
Reg.  Monacens.  Cod.  Ital.  598.) 

2  Esaminatore,  Firenze,  April  15,  1867,  p.  100.     In  Spain,  the  census  of   1768 
gave  the  number  of  ecclesiastics,  male  and  female,  regular  and  secular,  as  183,966. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  807 

the  efficient  cause  of  calling  together  the  high  council  of 
the  nation.  This  property  was  estimated  as  covering  one- 
fifth  of  the  surface  of  France,  yielding  with  the  tithes  an 
annual  revenue  of  three  hundred  millions  of  francs.  So 
vast  an  amount  of  wealth,  perverted  for  the  most  part 
from  its  legitimate  purposes,  offered  an  irresistible  tempta- 
tion to  desperate  financiers,  and  yet  it  was  a  prelate  who 
made  the  first  direct  attack  upon  it.  On  10  October,  1789, 
Talleyrand,  then  Bishop  of  Autun,  introduced  a  motion 
to  the  effect  that  it  should  be  devoted  to  the  national 
wants,  subject  to  the  proper  and  necessary  expenses  for 
pubhc  worship  ;  and  on  November  2  the  measure  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  568  to  346.  This  settled  the 
principle,  though  the  details  of  a  transaction  of  such 
magnitude  were  only  perfected  by  successive  acts  during 
the  two  following  years.  One  of  the  earliest  results  was 
the  secularisation  of  those  ecclesiastics  whose  labours  did 
not  entitle  them  to  support,  a  preliminary  necessary  to 
the  intended  appropriation  of  their  princely  revenues. 
This  was  accomplished  by  an  act  of  13  February,  1790,  by 
which  the  religious  Orders  were  suppressed,  monastic  vows 
were  declared  void,  and  a  moderate  annuity  accorded  to 
the  unfortunates  thus  turned  adrift  upon  the  world. 

The  great  body  of  the  parochial  clergy,  patriotic  in 
their  aspirations,  and  suffering  from  the  abuses  of  power, 
had  hailed  the  advent  of  the  Revolution  with  joy ;  and 
their  assistance  had  been  invaluable  in  rendering  the 
Tiers-Etat  supreme  in  the  National  Assembly.  These 
measures,  however,  assailing  their  dearest  interests  and 
privileges,  aroused  them  to  a  sense  of  the  true  tendency 
of  the  movement  to  which  they  had  contributed  so  power- 
fully. A  breach  was  inevitable  between  them  and  the 
partisans  of  progress.  Every  forward  step  embittered  the 
quarrel.  It  was  impossible  for  the  one  party  to  stay  its 
course,  or  for  the  other  to  assent   to   acts  which  daily 


308  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

became  more  menacing  and  revolutionary.  Forced, 
therefore,  into  the  position  of  reactionaries,  the  clergy  ere 
long  became  objects  of  suspicion  and  soon  after  of  perse- 
cution. The  progressives  devised  a  test-oath,  obligatory 
on  all  ecclesiastics,  which  should  divide  those  who  were 
loyal  to  the  Revolution  from  the  contumacious,  and  lists 
were  kept  of  both  classes.^  Harmless  as  the  oath  was  in 
appearance,  when  it  was  tendered,  in  December  1790, 
five-sixths  of  the  clergy  throughout  the  kingdom  refused 
it.  Those  who  yielded  to  the  pressure  were  termed 
asse?^mentes,  the  recusants  insey^nentes  or  refractaires,  and 
the  latter,  of  course,  at  once  became  the  determined 
opponents  of  the  new  regime^  the  more  dangerous  because 
they  were  the  only  influential  partisans  of  reaction  belong- 
ing to  the  people.  To  their  efforts  were  attributed  the 
insurrections  which  in  La  Vendue  and  elsewhere  threatened 
the  most  fearful  dangers.  They  were  accordingly  exposed 
to  severe  legislation.  A  decree  of  29  November,  1791, 
deprived  them  of  their  stipends  and  suspended  their 
functions ;  another  of  27  May,  1792,  authorised  the  local 
authorities  to  exile  them  on  the  simple  denunciation  of 
twenty  citizens.  Under  the  Terror  their  persons  were 
exposed  to  flagrant  cruelties,  and  a  pretre  refractaire 
was  generally  regarded,  ipso  facto,  as  an  enemy  to  the 
Republic. 

Under  these  circumstances,  sacerdotal  marriage  came 
to  be  looked  upon  as  a  powerful  lever  to  disarm  or  over- 
throw the  hostility  of  the  Church,  and  also  as  a  test  of 
loyalty  or  disloyalty.  Yet  the  steps  by  which  this  con- 
clusion was  reached  were  very  gradual.  In  the  early 
stages  of  the  Revolution,  while  it  was  still  fondly  deemed 

1  "D'etre  fidele  k  la  nation,  k  la  loi,  au  roi,  et  de  veiller  exactement  sur  le 
troupeau  confie  ^  leurs  soins."  It  was  not  only  the  objections  of  the  King  and  of 
the  Pope  that  rendered  this  oath  unpalatable,  but  also  the  fact  that  it  gave  adhesion 
to  the  law  for  the  secularisation  of  ecclesiastical  property  and  of  the  monastic 
Orders.  It  was  ordered  in  the  Constitution  civile  du  Clergi,  Tit.  II.  Art.  21,  38 
adopted  July  12,  and  promulgated  August  24,  1790. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  309 

that  the  existing  institutions  of  France  could  be  purified 
and  preserved,  the  National  Assembly  was  assailed  with 
petitions  asking  that  the  privilege  of  marriage  should  be 
extended  to  the  clergy.^  These  met  with  no  response, 
even  after  the  suppression  of  the  monastic  Orders.  As 
late  as  September  1790,  when  the  Abbd  Professor  Cour- 
nand,  of  the  College  de  France,  made  a  motion  in  favour 
of  sacerdotal  marriage  in  the  assembly  of  the  district  of 
St.  Etienne  du  Mont  in  Paris,  the  question,  after  con- 
siderable debate,  was  laid  aside  as  beyond  the  competence 
of  that  body.  It  was  not  until  3  September,  1791,  that 
Mirabeau  introduced  into  the  Assembly  a  decree  pro- 
viding that  no  profession  or  vocation  should  debar  a 
citizen  from  marriage  or  be  considered  as  incompatible 
with  marriage,  and  forbidding  the  public  officials  and 
notaries  from  refusing  to  ratify  any  marriage  contract  on 
such  pretext.  Though  no  allusion  was  made  in  this  to 
ecclesiastics,  its  object  was  evident,  and  was  so  admitted 
in  the  eloquent  speech  with  which  he  urged  its  adoption — 
a  speech  which  contained  a  very  telhng  resume  of  the 
arguments  in  favour  of  priestly  marriage,  but  which,  in 
its  glowing  anticipations  of  the  benefits  to  be  expected 
from  the  measure,  affords  a  somewhat  lamentable  contrast 
to  the  meagreness  of  the  realisation.^  The  principle,  when 
once  established,  was  considered  of  sufficient  importance 
to  deserve  recognition  in  the  Constitution  of  September 
1791,  a  section  in  the  preamble  of  which  declares  that 
the  law  does  not  recognise  religious  vows  or  any  en- 
gagements  contrary  to    the    rights   of  nature  or  to  the 

1  I  have  before  me  one  of  the  pamphlets  issued  about  this  time  (Le  Mariage  des 
Pretres,  Paris,  Laclaye,  1790,  8vo,  pp.  102),  addressed  to  the  Assembly.  It  is  a 
tolerably  calm  and  well-reasoned  argument,  basing  its  demand  upon  the  usages  of 
the  primitive  Church,  the  precepts  of  Scripture,  the  rights  of  nature,  and  public 
utility.  The  author  asserts  himself  to  be  a  priest  well  advanced  in  life,  and  he 
assumes  that  the  corruption  of  society  disseminated  by  the  licentiousness  of  eccle- 
siastics is  generally  recognised  and  understood. 

2  This  speech  is  printed  in  full  from  a  MS.  in  the  public  library  of  Geneva,  by 
the  Abb^  Chavard  (Le  Celibat  des  Pretres,  pp.  483-600). 


810  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

constitution  ^ ;  and  this  was  followed,  as  Mirabeau  had 
proposed,  by  a  decree  of  20  September,  1791,  which,  in 
enumerating  the  obstacles  to  marriage,  does  not  allude  to 
monastic  vows  or  holy  orders. 

Professor  Cournand  was  probably  the  first  man  of 
position  and  character  to  take  advantage  of  the  privilege 
thus  permitted,  and  his  example  was  followed  by  many 
ecclesiastics  who  had  won  an  honourable  place  in  the 
Church,  in  literature,  and  in  science.  Among  them  may 
be  mentioned  the  Abbe  Gaudin  of  the  Oratoire,  the 
author  of  a  work  already  alluded  to  on  the  evils  of  celi- 
bacy, who  in  1792  represented  La  Vendee  in  the  Legis- 
lative Assembly,  and  who  in  1805  did  not  hesitate  to 
publish  a  little  volume  entitled  "  Avis  a  mon  fils  age  de 
sept  ans  " — although  in  the  preface  to  his  work  in  1781 
he  had  described  himself  as  long  past  the  age  of  the 
passions.  Even  bishops  yielded  to  the  temptation. 
Lom^nie,  coadjutor  of  his  uncle  the  Archbishop  of  Sens, 
Torn^,  Bishop  of  Bourges,  Massieu  of  Beauvais,  and 
Lindet  of  Evreux  were  publicly  married.  Many  nuptials 
of  this  kind  were  celebrated  with  an  air  of  defiance. 
Pastors  announced  their  approaching  weddings  to  their 
flocks  in  florid  rhetoric,  as  though  assured  of  finding 
sjnnpathy  for  the  assertion  of  the  triumph  of  nature  over 
the  tyranny  of  man.  Others  presented  themselves  with 
their  brides  at  the  bar  of  the  National  Convention,  as 
though  to  demonstrate  that  they  were  good  citizens  who 
had  thrown  off  all  reverence  for  the  obsolete  traditions 
of  the  past. 

A  nation  maddened  and  torn  by  the  extremes  of  hope, 
of  rage,  and  of  terror,  which  met  the  triumphal  march  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  hostile  bayonets  with 
the  heads  of  its  king  and  queen,  which  blazoned  forth  to 

1  La  loi  ne  reconnait  ni  voeux  religieux,  ni  aucun  autre  engagement  qui  serait 
contraire  aux  droits  naturels  ou  ^  la  constitution. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION   311 

Etirope  its  irrevocable  breach  with  the  past  by  instituting 
festivals  in  honour  of  a  new  Supreme  Being  and  parading 
a  courtesan  through  the  streets  of  Paris  as  the  goddess 
of  rcison,  was  not  likely  to  employ  much  tenderness  in 
coercing  its  internal  enemies,  and  chief  among  these  it 
finally  numbered  the  ministers  of  religion.  To  them  it 
soon  applied  the^marriage  test.  To  marry  was  to  acknow- 
ledge tte  supremacy  of  the  civil  authority  and  to  sunder 
allegiance  to  foreign  domination  ;  celibacy  was  at  the  least 
a  tacit  adierence  to  the  enemy  and  a  mute  protest  against 
the  new  rlgime.  Matrimony,  therefore,  rose  into  impor- 
tance as  at  once  a  test  and  a  pledge,  and  every  effort  was 
made  to  ercourage  it.  Among  the  records  of  the  revolu- 
tionary trihmal  is  the  trial  of  Mahue,  curd  of  S.  Sulpice, 
13  August,  1793,  accused  of  having  written  a  pamphlet 
against  prietly  marriage,  and  he  was  only  acquitted  on 
the  ground  hat  his  crime  had  been  committed  prior  to 
the  adoptioLof  the  law  of  19  July,  1793.^  A  decree  of 
19  Novembe,  1793,  relieved  from  exile  or  imprisonment 
all  priests  wio  could  show  that  their  banns  had  been 
published,  ani  when,  soon  afterwards,  at  the  height  of  the 
popular  frenz;,  the  Convention  sent  its  deputies  through- 
out France  vA\i  instructions  to  crush  out  every  vestige  of 
the  dreaded  taction,  those  emissaries  made  celibacy  the 
object  of  theirespecial  attacks.  Thus,  in  the  Department 
of  the  Meuse  deputy  De  la  Croix  announced  that  all 
priests  who  wee  not  married  should  be  placed  under  sur- 
veillance ;  whi3  in  Savoy  the  harsh  measures  taken  against 
the  clergy  wert  modified  in  favour  of  those  who  married 
by  permitting  :hem  to  remain  under  surveillance.  One 
zealous  deputy  ordered  a  pastor  to  be  imprisoned  until 
he  could  find  a  wife,  and  another  released  a  canon  from 
jail  on  his  pledging  himself  to  marry.  Many  of  those 
thus    forced    ino    matrimony  were    decrepit  with  years, 

1  Desmze,  Penalites  Anciennes,  p.  222,  Paris,  1866. 


312  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

and  chose  brides  whose  age  secured  them  from  all  siis- 
picions  of  yielding  to  the  temptations  of  the  flesh.  Sach 
was  the  venerable  Martin  of  Marseilles,  who,  after  seeing 
his  bishop  and  two  priests,  his  intimate  friends,  led  io  the 
scaffold,  took,  at  the  age  of  76,  a  wife  nearly  60  yea's  old. 
As  an  unfortunate  ecclesiastic,  who  had  thus  succeeded 
in  weathering  the  storm,  fairly  expressed  it,  in  defending 
himself  against  the  reproaches  of  a  returned  emigre 
bishop,  he  took  a  wife  to  serve  as  a  lightnng  rod. 
These  unwilling  bridegrooms  not  infrequently  leposited 
with  a  notary  or  a  trusty  friend  a  protest  against  the 
violence  to  which  they  had  yielded,  and  a  declaation  that 
their  relations  with  their  wives  should  be  merey  those  of 
brother  and  sister.  \ 

Yet  in  this  curious  persecution  the  officials  mly  obeyed 
the  voice  of  the  excited  people.  The  press,  tie  stage,  all 
the  organs  of  public  opinion,  were  unanimou  in  warring 
with  celibacy,  ridiculing  it  as  a  fanatical  remnant  of 
superstition,  and  denouncing  it  as  a  crim^  against  the 
state.  The  popular  societies  were  especiallyvehement  in 
promulgating  these  ideas.  The  Congres  fraternel  of 
Ausch,  in  September  1793,  ordered  the  Leal  clubs  to 
enlighten  the  benighted  minds  of  the  poplace  on  the 
subject,  and  to  exclude  from  membership  al  priests  who 
should  not  marry  within  six  months.  A  ptition  to  the 
National  Assembly  from  the  republicans  of  Auxerre 
demanded  that  all  ecclesiastics  who  persis^d  in  remain- 
ing single  should  be  banished ;  while  a  nore  truculent 
address  from  Condom  urged  imperiouslythat  ceUbacy 
should  be  declared  a  capital  crime,  and  hat  the  death 
penalty  should  be  enforced  with  relentlesi  severity.  In 
times  so  unsparing,  when  suspicion  was  ionviction  and 
conviction  death,  and  when  such  were  thejviews  of  those 
who  swayed  public  affairs,  it  is  not  to  if  wondered  at 
if  many  pious  Churchmen,  unambitious  o  the  crown  of 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  313 

martyrdom,  thought  matrimony  preferable  to  the  guil- 
lotine or  the  noyade. 

Indeed,  the  only  source  of  surprise  is  that  so  few  were 
found  to  betray  their  convictions.  In  the  vast  body  of 
the  Gallican  Church  it  is  estimated  that  only  about  2000 
marriages  of  men  in  orders  took  place  after  the  Reign  of 
Terror  had  rendered  it  a  measure  of  safety.  In  addition  to 
this,  about  500  nuns  were  also  married  ;  and  though  this 
proportion  is  larger,  it  is  still  singularly  small  when  we 
consider  that  these  poor  creatures,  utterly  unfitted  by  habit 
or  education  to  take  care  of  themselves,  were  suddenly 
ejected  from  their  peaceful  retreats  and  cast  upon  a 
world  which  was  raging  in  convulsions  so  terrible.^ 

This  is  doubtless  attributable  to  the  steadfast  resistance 
which  the  better  part  of  the  clergy  made  to  the  innovation, 
in  spite  of  the  danger  of  withstanding  the  popular  frenzy, 
and  in  disregard  of  the  laws  which  denounced  such  oppo- 
sition. Even  the  assermentes,  who  had  pledged  themselves 
to  the  Revolution  by  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  were 
mostly  unfavourable  to  the  abrogation  of  celibacy,  and  the 
position  thus  maintained  by  the  clergy  gave  tone  to  such 
of  the  people  as  retained  enough  of  devout  feeling  still  to 
frequent  the  churches  and  partake  of  the  mysteries  of 
rehgion.  The  existence  of  an  active  and  determined  oppo- 
sition is  revealed  by  an  act  of  16  August,  1792,  guarantee- 
ing the  salaries  of  all  married  priests,  thus  showing  that 
in  some  places  at  least  their  stipends  had  been  withheld. 

1  I  have  not  found  it  easy  to  form  a  satisfactory  estimate  of  the  number  of 
French  ecclesiastics  previous  to  the  Kevolution.  Le  Bas  (Dictionnaire  Encyclo- 
pedique  de  I'Histoire  de  France,  V.  218)  gives  a  table  showing  an  aggregate  of 
418,206  souls,  of  whom  235,147  may  be  considered  as  attached  to  the  secular  service, 
and  183,059  to  the  regular  Orders  and  canons.  Of  these  latter,  100,451  were  men 
and  82,608  were  women.  On  the  other  hand,  M.  Sauvestre  (Congregations  Keli- 
gieuses,  pp.  5,  6)  quotes  from  the  Abbe  Expilly  a  statement  that  in  1765  there  were 
79.000  monks  and  80,000  nuns,  while  he  shows  that  other  contemporary  authorities 
reduce  the  number  of  members  of  religious  Orders  in  1789  to  52,000  of  both  sexes. 
M.  Charles  Chabot  (Encyclopedie  Monastique,  p.  x.,  Paris,  1827)  computes,  after 
elaborate  tabulation,  the  number  of  ecclesiastics,  regular  and  secular,  at  407,753 
persons,  enjoying  a  revenue  of  127,610,576  francs. 


314  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Many  pastors,  indeed,  were  driven  from  their  parishes  by 
their  congregations,  in  consequence  of  marriage,  to  put  an 
end  to  which  a  decree  of  17  September,  1793,  ordered  the 
communes  to  continue  payment  of  salaries  in  all  such  cases 
of  ejection. 

There  were  not  wanting  courageous  ecclesiastics  who 
opposed  the  innovation  by  every  means  in  their  power. 
Although  Gobel,  Bishop  of  Paris,  a  creature  of  the 
Revolution,  favoured  the  marriages  of  his  clergy,  a  portion 
of  his  curates  openly  and  vigorously  denounced  them,  and 
Gratien,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  addressed  to  him  a  severe 
reproach  for  his  criminal  weakness.  The  same  Gratien 
excommunicated  one  of  his  priests  for  marrying,  and  pub- 
lished, 24  July,  1792,  an  instruction  directed  especially 
against  such  unions.  For  this  he  was  thrown  into  prison, 
where  he  was  long  confined.  Fauchet  of  Bayeux,  for  the 
same  offence,  was  reported  to  the  Convention,  but  was 
fortunate  enough  to  elude  the  consequences.  Philibert 
of  Sedan  issued,  20  January,  1793,  a  pastoral  in  which  he 
more  cautiously  argued  against  the  practice,  and,  after  a 
long  persecution,  he  was  lucky  to  escape  with  a  decree 
of  costs  against  him.  Pastorals  to  the  same  effect  were 
also  promulgated  by  Clement  of  Versailles,  Heraudin  of 
Chateauroux,  Sanadon  of  Oleron,  Suzor  of  Tours,  and 
others. 

The  Convention  was  not  disposed  to  tolerate  proceed- 
ings such  as  these.  To  put  a  stop  to  them,  it  adopted, 
19  July,  1793,  a  law  punishing  with  deprivation  and  exile 
all  bishops  who  interfered  in  any  way  with  the  marriage 
of  their  clergy.  For  a  while  this  appears  to  have  put  a  stop 
to  open  opposition,  but  when  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  past, 
and  the  Catholics  saw  a  prospect  of  reorganising  the  dis- 
tracted Church,  one  of  the  earliest  efforts  was  directed  to 
the  restoration  of  celibacy.  On  15  March,  1795,  some 
assermentes  bishops,  members  of  the  Convention,  issued 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  315 

from  Paris  an  encyclical  letter  to  the  faithful,  in  which 
they  denounced  sacerdotal  marriage  in  the  strongest  terms. 
Those  who  entered  into  such  unions  were  declared  un- 
worthy of  confidence ;  the  fearful  constraint  under  which 
they  had  sought  refuge  in  matrimony  was  pronounced  to 
be  no  justification,  and  even  renunciation  of  their  wives 
was  not  admitted  as  entitling  them  to  absolution  for  the 
one  unpardonable  sin.^  In  a  second  letter,  issued  15  De- 
cember of  the  same  year,  this  denunciation  was  repeated 
in  even  stronger  terms. 

In  these  manifestoes  the  bishops  did  not  speak  by 
authority.  They  could  not  threaten  or  command,  for  they 
were  acting  beyond  or  in  opposition  to  the  law.  With 
the  progress  of  reaction  they  became  bolder.  In  1797  the 
Church  ventured  to  hold  a  national  council,  in  which  it 
forbade  the  nuptial  benediction  to  those  who  were  in 
orders  or  were  bound  by  monastic  vows,  thus  reducing 
their  marriages  to  the  mere  civil  contract,  and  depriving 
them  of  all  the  sanction  of  religion.  The  local  synods 
which,  encouraged  by  the  fall  of  the  Directory,  were  held 
in  1800,  adopted  these  principles  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  took  measures  to  enforce  them.  That  of  Bourges 
even  prohibited  the  churching  of  women  who  were  wives 
of  ecclesiastics. 

This  condemnation  of  the  married  clergy  carried  despair 
and  desolation  into  the  households  of  those  who  had 
offended,  and  upon  whom  the  door  of  reconciliation  was 
so  sternly  closed.  Gregoire  of  Blois,  a  leading  actor  in  all 
these  scenes,  records  the  innumerable  appeals  received 
from  the  unfortunates,  who,  torn  by  remorse  and  thus 
repudiated  by  the  Church,  begged  in  vain  for  the  mercy 
which  was  incompatible  with  the  respect  due  to  the 
ancient  and  inviolable  canons. 

All  this,   however,    was    merely    local    action.     The 

1  Lett.  Encyc.  15  Mars,  1795,  art.  ix.  (Gregoire,  p.  109.) 


316  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Gallican  Church  had  not  yet  been  reunited  to  Rome.  In 
reconstructing  a  system  of  social  order,  Napoleon  speedily 
recognised  the  necessity  of  religion  in  the  state,  and, 
despite  the  opposition  of  those  who  still  believed  in  the 
Republic,  the  Concordat  of  1801  restored  France  to  its 
place  in  the  hierarchy  of  Latin  Christianity.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  Concordat  interfering  with  the  right  of  the 
priest,  as  a  citizen,  to  contract  marriage ;  but  as,  in  all 
affairs  purely  ecclesiastical,  the  internal  regulation  and 
discipline  of  the  Church  were  necessarily,  left  to  itself, 
the  rights  of  the  priest,  as  a  priest,  became  of  course 
subject  to  the  received  rules  of  the  Church,  which  could 
thus  refuse  the  nuptual  benediction,  and  suspend  the 
functions  of  any  one  contravening  its  canons.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  power  thus  restored,  when  the  question 
soon  after  arose  as  to  the  legality  of  sacerdotal  marriages 
contracted  during  the  troubles,  the  cardinal-legate  Caprara 
issued  rescripts  to  those  whose  unions  were  anterior  to  the 
Concordat,  depriving  them  of  their  priestly  character, 
reducing  them  to  the  rank  of  laymen,  and  empowering  the 
proper  officials  to  absolve  them  and  remarry  them  to  the 
wives  whom  they  had  so  irregularly  wedded.  This  created 
a  strong  feeling  of  indignation  among  the  prelates  who 
had  carried  the  tabernacle  through  the  wilderness,  and  who 
while  opposing  such  marriages  most  strenuously,  regarded 
this  intervention  of  papal  authority  as  a  direct  assault  upon 
the  Hberties  of  the  Gallican  Church.  Their  time  was  past, 
however,  and  their  denunciations  of  this  duplication  of  the 
sacrament  were  of  no  avail.  Yet  the  legality  of  such 
marriages  as  civil  contracts,  and  the  unimpaired  right  of 
priests  to  contract  them,  were  asserted  and  proved  by 
PortaHs,  in  his  masterly  speech  of  15  April,  1802,  before 
the  Corps  L^gislatif,  advocating  the  adoption  of  the 
Concordat  as  a  law,  although  he  admitted  that  the  Church 
could  withhold  its  sanction  and  could  exercise  its  discipline 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  317 

while  the  feehng  of  the  people  rendered  sacerdotal  celibacy 
desirable.^ 

One  phase  of  the  situation  thus  created  was  aptly 
illustrated  in  the  curious  affair  of  Prince  Talleyrand's 
marriage,  which  attracted  at  the  time  the  attention  of 
Europe.  Forced  into  the  Church  by  family  exigencies, 
and  elevated  to  the  bishopric  of  Autun,  he  had  earned  the 
permanent  hatred  of  the  hierarchy  by  throwing  himself 
into  the  revolutionary  movement,  where  he  bore  a  leading 
part  in  the  secularisation  of  ecclesiastical  property  and 
utilised  his  episcopal  functions  in  consecrating  the  Consti- 
tutional bishops.  This  could  not  be  condoned,  even  in 
view  of  the  active  assistance  which,  as  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  under  the  Consulate,  he  rendered  in  the  negotia- 
tions for  the  Concordat.  In  these  he  had  vainly  sought 
to  introduce  a  clause  releasing  from  their  obhgations  all 
ecclesiastics  who  had  contracted  marriage  or  had  other- 
wise renounced  their  clerical  status — a  clause  which  would 

1  This  speech  of  Portalis  p^re  is  an  admirable  commentary  on  the  Concordat, 
developing  its  causes  and  consequences  with  a  rigidity  of  logic  and  an  enlightened 
spirit  of  faith  which  are  equally  creditable  to  the  head  and  heart  of  the  distinguished 
orator.  From  the  portion  devoted  to  the  subject  of  marriage  I  quote  the  follow- 
ing, as  embodying  a  clear  exposition  of  the  intentions  of  those  who  negotiated  the 
Concordat  : 

"  Quelques  personues  se  plaindront  peut-etre  de  ce  que  Ton  n'a  pas  conserve  le 
mariage  des  pretres.  .  .  .  En  eflfet,  d'une  part  nous  n'admettons  plus  que  les 
ministres  dont  I'existence  est  necessaire  a  I'exercice  du  culte,  ce  qui  diminue  con- 
siderablement  le  nombre  des  personnes  qui  se  vouaient  anciennement  au  celibat. 
D'autre  part,  pour  les  ministres  memes  que  nous  conservons,  et  ^  qui  le  cdlibat 
est  ordonne  par  les  reglements  ecclesiastiques,  la  defense  qui  leur  est  faite  du  mariage 
par  ces  reglements  n'est  point  consacree  comme  empichement  dirimant  dans  I'ordre 
civil :  ainsi  leur  mariage,  s'ils  en  contractaient  un,  ne  serait  point  nul  aus  yeux  des 
lois  politiques  et  civiles,  et  les  enfans  qui  en  naitraient  seraient  l^itimes  ;  mais  dans 
le  for  interieur  et  dans  I'ordre  religieux,  ils  s'exposeraient  aux  peines  spirituelles 
prononcees  par  les  lois  canoniques  :  ils  contiaueraient  k  jouir  deleurs  droits  defamille 
et  de  cite,  mais  ils  seraient  tenus  de  s'abstenir  de  I'exercice  du  sacerdoce.  Conse- 
quemmentj  sans  affaiblir  le  nerf  de  la  discipline  de  I'eglise,  on  conserve  aux  individus 
toute  la  liberte  et  tous  les  avantages  garantis  par  les  lois  de  I'etat ;  mais  il  eut  ete 
in  juste  d'aller  plus  loin,  et  d'exiger  pour  les  ecclesiastiques  de  France,  comme  tels, 
une  exception  qui  les  efit  deconsideres  aupres  de  tous  les  peuples  Catholiques,  et 
aupres  des  frangais  memes,  auxquels  ils  adminlstreraient  les  secours  de  la  religion.' 
(Dupin,  Manuel  du  Droit  Public  Eccles.  Frangaise,  4eme  ed.  pp.  196-8.) 


318  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

have  covered  his  own  case — but  Pius  VII.  was  obdurate, 
and,  while  promising  to  give  to  his  legate  Caprara  faculties 
to  absolve  simple  priests,  he  refused  to  comprehend  bishops 
and  members  of  the  religious  Orders/ 

The  Concordat  adopted  in  this  shape  left  Talleyrand 
in  an  awkward  position.  A  fascinating  woman  with  a 
dubious  past,  known  as  Madame  Grand,  had  for  some 
years  been  his  acknowledged  mistress,  doing  the  honours 
of  his  house.  In  the  easy  morality  of  the  Directory  this 
had  caused  no  scandal,  but  Napoleon,  in  re-establishing 
order,  insisted  on  external  decency,  and  moreover,  when 
relations  were  resumed  with  foreign  powers,  ambassadorial 
ladies  murmured  at  being  obliged  to  associate  with  a 
concubine.  He  therefore  offered  Talleyrand  the  per- 
emptory alternatives  of  marrying  Madame  Grand  or  of 
dismissing  her,  and  Talleyrand  chose  the  former.  Two 
pressing  applications  were  made  to  the  Holy  See  and 
urged  with  all  the  force  that  Napoleon  could  bring  to 
bear,  but  in  each  case  the  only  outcome  was  a  brief 
enabling  Talleyrand  to  be  unfrocked,  to  be  reduced  to  lay 
communion,  deprived  of  sacerdotal  functions,  and  author- 
ised to  lead  a  secular  hfe,  without  a  word  as  to  marriage. 
Thus  checked,  Talleyrand  made  the  best  of  the  situation. 
He  caused  the  second  brief  to  be  laid  before  the  Council 
of  State,  which  duly  accepted  it  and  ordered  its  registra- 
tion, and  it  was  officially  gazetted  in  a  concise  form  stating 
that  it  restored  citizen  Talleyrand  to  secular  life.  All  the 
world  assumed  this  as  conferring  on  him  the  full  privileges 
of  the  laity,  and  it  was  in  vain  that  the  Holy  See  caused 
the  insertion  in  foreign  journals  of  a  statement  that  it 
reduced  him  to  lay  communion  without  relieving  him  of 
his  vows.  His  civil  marriage  with  Madame  Grand  was 
celebrated  on  10  September,  1802,  and  the  lady  had  the 

1  Bernard  de  Lacombe,  Le  Mariage  de  Talleyrand  (Ze  Correspondant,  Paris,  25 
Aout  et  10  Septembre,  1905). 

It  is  to  this  exhaustive  article  that  I  owe  the  details  of  this  celebrated  case. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION   319 

satisfaction  of  styling  herself  Talleyrand-Perigord,  or 
subsequently  Princess  of  Benevento.  A  sacramental 
marriage,  it  is  said,  followed,  performed  quietly  by  the 
cur^  of  Epinay,  but  the  parish  register  of  that  place  has 
disappeared  and  the  assertion  cannot  be  confirmed,  though 
there  is  little  reason  to  disbelieve  it,  for  no  one  at  the 
time,  save  the  Curia,  doubted  the  legal  validity  of  the 
union. 

The  question  of  celibacy  was  not  settled  by  the  Con- 
cordat. Notwithstanding  the  certainty  of  ecclesiastical 
penalties  following  such  infraction  of  the  Tridentine 
articles  of  faith,  the  practice  which  had  been  introduced 
could  not  be  immediately  eradicated.  Priests  were  con- 
stantly contracting  marriage,  and  the  question  gave  con- 
siderable trouble  to  the  Government,  which  hesitated  for 
some  time  as  to  the  policy  to  be  pursued.  PortaHs,  in 
1802,  as  w^e  have  seen,  declared  the  full  legality  of  such 
marriages,  and  the  unimpaired  right  of  ecclesiastics  to 
contract  them  ;  and  the  provisions  of  the  Code  respecting 
marriage,  adopted  in  1803,  make  no  allusions  to  vows  or 
religious  engagements  as  causing  incapacity.^  Yet  in 
1805,  when  Daviaux,  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux,  opposed 
the  application  of  a  priest  named  Boisset  to  the  civil 
authorities  for  a  marriage  contract,  Portalis,  then  Minister 
of  Religious  Affairs,  on  being  appealed  to,  replied  that 
the  Government  would  not  allow  its  officers  to  register 
such  contracts.  The  local  administrations  sometimes 
assented  to  such  applications  and  sometimes  referred  them 
to  the  central  authority,  until  at  length,  in  1807,  a  definite 
conclusion  was  promulgated.  This  was  to  the  effect  that 
although  the  civil  law  was  silent  as  regards  such  marriages, 
yet  they  were  condemned  by  public  opinion.  The 
Government  considered  them  fraught  with  danger  to  the 
peace  of  families,  as  the  powerful  influence  of  the  pastor 

1  Code  Civil,  Liv.  i.  Tit.  v. 


320  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

could  be  perverted  to  evil  purposes,  and,  if  seduction 
could  be  followed  by  marriage,  that  influence  would  be 
liable  to  great  abuse.  The  Emperor  therefore  declared 
that  he  could  not  tolerate  marriage  on  the  part  of  those 
who  had  exercised  priestly  functions  since  the  date  of  the 
Concordat.  As  for  those  who  had  abandoned  the  ministry 
previous  to  that  period  and  had  not  since  resumed  it,  he 
left  them  to  their  own  consciences.  Thus  in  practice, 
although  marriage  was  regarded  as  purely  a  civil  institu- 
tion, a  limitation  was  introduced  which  was  not  authorised 
by  the  Code,  which  rested  solely  upon  the  authority  of  the 
Emperor,  and  which,  far  from  indicating  respect  to  the 
Church,  was  a  flagrant  insult.  As  Napoleon  withdrew 
himself  more  and  more  from  the  principles  of  the  new 
order  of  things,  we  find  him  disposed  to  take  even  stronger 
ground  in  opposition  to  the  civil  privileges  accorded  to  the 
priesthood  by  the  Concordat.  The  question  of  sacerdotal 
marriage  continued  to  present  itself  under  perplexing 
shapes,  and  at  length  the  Emperor,  on  the  eve  of  his 
downfall,  perhaps  with  a  view  to  propitiate  the  sacerdotal 
power,  proposed  to  apply  to  married  priests  the  penalty 
imposed  by  the  law  on  bigamy.^  It  was  too  late,  how- 
ever :  the  Empire  was  rapidly  vanishing,  and  these  sug- 
gestions were  soon  forgotten  in  the  hurrying  march  of 
events.^ 

1  In  an  address  to  the  Council  of  State,  December  20,  1813,  Napoleon  said  :  "Le 
sacerdoce  est  une  sorte  de  mariage  ;  le  pretre  etant  uni  k  I'eglise  comme  I'^poux  k 
son  epouse,  il  n'y  aurait  aucun  inconvenient  k  appliquer  au  pretre  qui  se  marierait  la 
peine  de  la  bigamie  :  un  tel  ecclesiastique  ne  merite  aucun  sorte  de  consideration." — 
Bouhier  de  I'Ecluse,  de  I'Etat  des  Pretres  en  France,  Paris,  1842,  p.  17. 

2  For  many  of  the  above  details  I  am  indebted  to  the  curious  but  ill-digested 
little  work,  "  Histoire  du  Mariage  des  Pretres  en  France,"  published  by  Gregoire  in 
1826.  Gregoire,  though  a  priest  of  the  ancien  rdgime,  was  a  sincere  and  consistent 
republican.  A  member  of  the  States  General,  of  the  Convention,  and  of  the  Council 
of  Five  Hundred,  elected  Bishop  of  Blois  by  the  voice  of  a  people  who  knew  and 
respected  him,  he  preserved  his  ardent  faith  through  all  the  excesses  of  the  Kevolu- 
tion,  and  his  democratic  ideas  in  spite  of  the  injuries  inflicted  on  his  class  in  the 
name  of  the  people.  The  sincerity  and  boldness  of  his  character  may  be  estimated 
by  a  single  example.  When,  on  7  November,  1793,  Gobel,  Bishop  of  Paris,  appeared 
before  the  Convention  with  twelve  of  his  vicars  and  publicly  renounced  his  sacred 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  321 

functions  on  the  ground  that  hereafter  there  should  be  no  other  worship  than  that 
of  liberty  and  equality,  almost  all  the  ecclesiastics  in  the  Convention  followed  his 
example.  To  hold  back  at  such  a  moment  was  dangerous  in  the  extreme,  yet  Gre- 
goire  had  the  hardihood  to  utter  a  defiant  protest.  "  I  am  a  Catholic  by  conviction 
and  by  feeling,  a  priest  by  choice,  a  bishop  by  the  voice  of  the  people,  but  not  from 
the  people  nor  from  you  do  I  derive  my  mission,  and  I  will  not  be  forced  to  an 
abjuration."  To  him  perhaps  more  than  to  any  one  else  is  attributable  the  skilful 
management  which  carried  the  Church  through  the  storms  and  persecutions  of  the 
Kevolution,  but  the  same  inflexibility  which  maintained  his  Catholicism  through 
the  ordeal  of  1793  and  1794  caused  him  to  stand  by  his  repubUcanism  long  after 
it  had  gone  out  of  fashion.  He  was  not  to  be  bought  or  bullied  :  the  Legitimist 
was  less  tolerant  than  the  Terrorist,  and  under  the  Kestoration  he  was  reduced 
almost  to  absolute  indigence.  Together  with  the  other  constitutional  bishops,  he 
had  been  compelled  to  resign  his  bishopric  by  order  of  the  Pope  after  the  Concordat 
of  1801,  and  he  was  too  dangerous  a  man  to  be  rewarded  for  his  invaluable 
services  to  religion.     He  died  in  1831. 


VOL.  II. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY 

The  question  of  sacerdotal  marriage  was  left  in  France,  on 
the  collapse  of  the  Empire,  in  a  curiously  unsettled  condi- 
tion, giving  rise  to  very  remarkable  contradictions  in  the 
judicial  decisions  which  since  then  have  from  time  to 
time  been  rendered  by  the  tribunals  as  cases  were  brought 
before  them. 

Under  the  Restoration,  a  priest  named  Martin,  an  old 
refractaire  of  1792,  committed  the  imprudence  of  marrying 
in  1815.  Not  long  after  he  died  without  issue.  His 
relatives  contested  the  succession  with  the  widow,  and  in 
1817  the  inferior  court  decided  in  her  favour.  The  next 
year  the  court  of  appeals  reversed  the  judgment  on  the 
ground  that  sacerdotal  marriage  had  only  been  sanctioned 
indirectly  by  the  legislation  of  the  Revolution,  and  that 
the  Charter  of  1814  (Art.  6)  had  restored  Catholicism  as 
the  religion  of  the  state.  In  1821,  however,  the  final 
decision  of  the  Court  of  Cassation  settled  the  question  in 
favour  of  the  widow,  thus  legalising  such  unions,  for  the 
incontrovertible  reason  that  the  Code  did  not  recognise 
vows  or  holy  orders  as  causes  incapacitating  for  marriage.^ 

Even  yet,  however,  the  matter  was  not  held  to  be 
finally  disposed  of.  In  1828,  Louis  Therese  Saturnin 
Dumonteil,  a  priest  of  Paris,  who  desired  to  contract 
marriage,  failed  to  obtain  from  the  courts  the  customary 
assistance  required  by  the  law  to  set  aside  the  refusal  of 

1  Gregoire,  op.  cit.  p.  102. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  323 

his  parents,  who  dedined  their  assent  to  his  projected 
union.  The  case  was  argued  in  all  its  bearings  on  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  law,  and  he  found  the  tribunals  resolutely- 
opposed  to  him.  When  the  Revolution  of  July  unsettled 
the  public  mind  with  visions  of  the  revival  of  the  principles 
of  '89,  Dumonteil  endeavoured  to  carry  out  his  project. 
The  lower  court  decided  in  his  favour,  26  March,  1831, 
but  the  higher  courts  reversed  the  decision,  and  pro- 
nounced definitely  that  priests  could  not  contract  civil 
marriage,^  and  this  in  spite  of  the  Charter  of  1830,  which 
simply  affirmed  Catholicism  to  be  the  religion  of  the 
majority  of  Frenchmen,  while  that  of  1814  had  declared 
it  to  be  the  religion  of  the  state. 

This  curiously  vexed  question  seemed  incapable  of 
positive  solution.  The  case  of  Dumonteil  apparently  dis- 
couraged aspirants  for  clerical  marriage  during  the  next 
thirty  years,  for  I  have  met  with  no  allusions  to  any 
attempt  in  that  direction  until  1861.  In  that  year 
M.  de  Brou-Lauriere,  a  priest  already  debarred  from  his 
sacred  functions,  engaged  himself  in  marriage  with  Mile. 
Elizabeth  Fressanges,  of  Deuville  near  Perigueux.  On 
calling  upon  the  mayor  of  the  village  to  perform  the 
ceremony  and  register  the  contract,  that  functionary 
refused  to  act.  He  was  supported  by  the  public  authori- 
ties, and  the  expectant  bridegroom  was  obliged  to  appeal 
to  the  tribunals  to  obtain  his  rights.  The  question  was 
warmly  contested  and  thoroughly  argued,  and  it  was  not 
until  a  year  had  elapsed  that  the  court  of  Perigueux 
rendered  a  decision  ordering  the  mayor  to  perform  his 
functions  and  to  marry  the  patient  couple.  The  case  was 
then  carried  to  the  superior  court  at  Bordeaux,  which 
reversed  the  previous  decision. 

1  Bouhier  de  TEcluse,  op.  cit.  It  was  apparently  this  case  which  led  to  the 
publication,  under  date  of  Monaco,  1829,  of  the  "  Considerazioni  imparziali  sopra  la 
legge  del  Celibato  Ecclesiastico,  proposte  dal  Professore  C.  A.  P." — A  tolerably  well 
written  summary  of  the  arguments  against  the  rule. 


324  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Again,  in  1864,  in  the  case  of  the  Abbe  Chataigneu, 
the  court  of  Angouleme  decided  that  a  priest  was,  under 
the  law  of  France,  not  competent  to  contract  civil 
marriage.^     On   the   other   hand,   in   1870  the    court   of 

Algiers,  in  the  case  of  a  M.  Q ,  delivered  an  elaborate 

decision  to  the  effect  that  in  France  there  is  no  law  for- 
bidding the  civil  marriage  of  priests.^  Yet  in  1878  the 
Court  of  Cassation  confirmed  a  decision  of  the  court  of 
Rennes,  pronouncing  null  and  void  the  marriage  of  a 
priest,  at  the  instance  of  his  nephew  and  niece,  to  whom 
he  had  bequeathed  his  property  by  a  will  anterior  to  the 
marriage.  When  M.  Loyson  (Pere  Hyacinthe)  married 
Mrs.  Merriman,  in  1872,  the  ceremony  was  performed  in 
London,  at  the  office  of  the  registrar  of  marriages,  and 
M.  Loyson  gave  as  the  reason  of  his  seeking  a  foreign 
land  the  refusal  of  the  French  officials  to  confirm  the  civil 
ceremony.  So  the  Abbe  Chavard,  vicar  of  Marseilles,  in 
1874  went  to  Geneva  for  the  same  purpose,  where  he  con- 
tinued his  priestly  functions ;  and  this  leads  me  to  regard 
as  exceedingly  improbable  a  public  statement  in  the  daily 
journals  that  priestly  marriages  occur  in  France  at  the  rate 
of  twenty  or  thirty  a  year.  In  fact,  so  lately  as  September 
1883  there  was  before  the  courts  a  case  which  shows  how 
uncertain  is  the  question  still  in  France.  A  certain  Abbe 
Junqua  was  expelled  from  the  Church  and  was  condemned 
to  three  months'  imprisonment  for  continuing  to  wear  the 
priestly  robes.  He  subsequently  married  and  engaged  in 
trade,  when  he  failed,  and  his  wife  sought  to  secure  her 
dowry  from  the  bankrupt  assets,  but  was  resisted  on  the 
ground  that  her  marriage  was  illegal  under  the  Concordat, 
although  the  Church  had  itself  deprived  the  husband  of  his 
ecclesiastical  character.  Yet  at  last,  when  in  1888  the 
Court  of  Cassation,   the    supreme    tribunal    in    France, 

1  Talmadge's  Letters  from  Florence,  p.  166. 

2  Chavard,  Le  Celibat  des  Pretres,  pp,  525-30. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  325 

definitely  decided  in  favour  of  priestly  marriage,  the 
decision  was  acquiesced  in  with  scarce  a  remonstrance  and 
hardly  attracted  attention.  It  is  evident  that  the  world 
moves. 

In  Switzerland  I  have  met  with  two  or  three  cases  of 
such  marriages,  but  they  have  no  special  significance.  In 
one  of  them,  occurring  in  Lucerne  some  fifty  years  ago, 
the  priest  left  the  Church  in  order  to  marry,  and  lived  with 
his  wife  until  her  death,  in  1880,  when  he  permitted  her  to 
be  buried  as  a  Catholic,  and  had  the  mortification  of  seeing 
her  name  entered  on  the  register,  publicly  exposed  in  the 
parish  church,  as  an  unmarried  woman. 

In  Wiesbaden,  in  1821,  a  priest  named  Koch,  with  the 
permission  of  the  authorities,  abandoned  the  priesthood 
and  applied  to  the  cure  of  the  place  to  marry  him,  when, 
meeting  with  a  refusal,  he  had  the  ceremony  performed  by 
a  Protestant  pastor,  and  was  promptly  excommunicated  by 
the  vicar  of  Ratisbon.  Not  deterred  by  this,  in  1828  a 
hundred  and  eighty  priests  of  Baden  petitioned  the  secular 
power  for  permission  to  marry,  and  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  showed  a  disposition  to  grant  the  request.  This 
effort  was  imitated  in  1831  by  the  Catholic  clergy  of 
Silesia,  but  the  movement  was  repressed  by  the  Prussian 
Government ;  and  in  1833,  at  Treves,  a  clerical  association 
was  formed  to  carry  out  the  same  object.^  These  efforts  led 
Gregory  XVI.,  in  the  encyclical  Mirari  vos  (15  August 
1832),  to  urge  the  bishops  to  constant  vigilance  and  earnest 
effort  in  defence  of  a  law  of  the  greatest  importance, 
against  a  foul  conspiracy  which  was  daily  extending. 
Some  similar  movements  in  Austria  in  the  next  decade 
led  Pius  IX.,  almost  immediately  after  his  accession  to 
the  papal  chair,  in  his  encyclical  letter  Qui  pluribus 
(9  November,  1846),  to  repeat  the  words  of  his  predecessor. 
In  1851,  moreover,  he  took  especial  pains  to  stigmatise  a 

1  J.  M.  Cayla,  Les  Cures  maries  par  le  Concile,  Paris,  1869. 


326  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

work,  published  in  Lima  by  Francisco  de  Paula  in  1848, 
entitled  "  Defensa  de  la  Autoridad  de  los  Goberinos," 
which  impiously  sought  to  decentralise  the  Church,  and 
which  took  strong  grounds  against  enforced  celibacy/ 

How  immovable,  indeed,  is  the  position  of  the  hier- 
archy on  this  matter  is  shown  by  the  case  of  Panzini. 
Panzini  is,  or  was,  a  Capuchin  monk,  who  in  1854  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  the  greater  part  of  the  evils  under 
which  the  establishment  labours  are  the  result  of  celibacy 
and  its  attendant  immorality.  He  addressed  to  the  Pope  an 
anonymous  memorial  urging  him  to  submit  the  question  to 
the  bishops  then  assembled  in  Rome,  and  followed  this  with 
two  similar  subsequent  applications.  Finally,  in  the  troubles 
of  1859,  anticipating  the  assembling  of  a  European  congress, 
he  resolved  to  print  an  essay  on  the  subject,  addressed  to 
all  the  bishops  of  the  Church,  thinking  that  the  congress 
would  afford  him  an  opportunity  of  reaching  them.  The 
printer  to  whom  he  confided  his  manuscript  promptly 
placed  the  dangerous  matter  in  the  hands  of  Cardinal 
Antonelli,  when  Panzini  was  at  once  thrown  into  prison 
and  delivered  to  the  Inquisition.  After  a  trial  which  lasted 
six  months,  he  was  condemned  to  twelve  years'  incar- 
ceration and  perpetual  suspension  from  the  sacerdotal 
functions  which  were  his  only  source  of  livelihood.  After 
two  years  of  his  sentence  had  expired,  he  was  released  at 
the  instance  of  the  Italian  Government,  and  in  1865  he 
published  his  essay,  rewritten  from  memory,  under  the 
title  of  "Pubblica  Confessione  di  un  Prigioniero  dell' 
Inquisizione  Romana  ed  origine  dei  mali  della  Chiesa 
Cattolica." 

Now,  Panzini's  persecution  arose  solely  from  his  affirm- 
ing that  enforced  celibacy  is  impolitic  and  unnatural.  He 
professed  unbounded  reverence  for  the  Church  in  all 
matters  of  faith,  and  claimed  that  the  point  at  issue  was 

1  Litt.  Apostol.  Multiplices  inter. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  327 

merely  one  of  discipline  on  which  the  Church  might  make 
a  mistake.     Even  here,  however,  he  was  careful  to  declare 
his  measureless  admiration  for  voluntary  asceticism.     Vir- 
ginity he  believed  to  be  immensely  superior  to  matrimony, 
and  he  anathematised  as  cheerfully  as  the  Council  of  Trent 
could  wish  all  who  should  proclaim  the  contrary.     Even 
monasticism  he  defended  as  a  state  of  perfection  recom- 
mended   by  Christ.     His    sole    objective    point   was   the 
rigidity  of  the  law  which  renders  the  single  state  indis- 
pensable to  all  ecclesiastics,  and  he  essayed  to  prove  that 
this  is  in  direct  antagonism  to  all  the  general  principles  of 
Catholic  theology ;  that  the  purity  which  is  its  pretext  is 
impossible  to  enforce,  and  that  the   effort   itself  is  most 
disastrous  to  the  Church  and  to  the  faithful.     The  authori- 
ties were  not  disposed  to  consider  that  these  opinions  were 
an  allowable  dissidence    on  matters  of  pohcy,  and  they 
hastened  to  brand  them    as  heretical.      In  the  sentence 
passed   upon    Panzini    the    Inquisition  took  occasion   to 
stigmatise  as  heresy  the  assertion  that  enforced  celibacy  is 
contrary  to  nature,  that  it  is  a  stumbling-block  and  the 
cause  of  perpetual  transgression.^     That  this  theory  was 
enforced  in  practice  so  long  as  the  Church  could  control 
the  secular  power  is  shown  in  the  case  of  an  Itahan  priest 
who,  preferring  to  sanctify  love  by  marriage  rather  than  to 
indulge  in  illicit  intrigue,  married  and  fled  with  his  bride 
to  Africa,  seeking  among  the  infidel  the  liberty  denied  him 
in  Christendom.    Three  children  blessed  his  union,  but  the 
unresting  vigilance  of  the  Church  discovered  his  retreat, 
when,  with  the  aid  of  the  French  consulate,  he  was  seized, 
carried  back  to  Naples,  and  thrown  into  prison  to  repent 
indefinitely  of  his  errors.^ 

There  evidently  could  be   no   reasonable  ground  for 
expecting  a  change  of  policy  in  this  respect  on  the  part  of 

1  Panzini,  pp.  16,  58, 102,  143,  201,  401. 

2  Ibid.  p.  123. 


828  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

the  Roman  Curia,  and  this  was  recognised  in  1866  by 
some  Cathohc  priests  of  Hungary,  who,  desiring  liberty  of 
marriage,  and  seeing  the  futihty  of  anticipating  it  at  the 
hands  of  their  superiors,  united  in  petitioning  the  National 
Diet  for  the  requisite  permission.     Yet  in  spite  of  the 
extravagance  of  supposing  that  a  body  which,  since  the 
Council  of  Trent,  has  become  so  thoroughly  centralised 
as  the  Church,  would  listen  to  the  wishes  of  its  lower 
classes,  there  were  not  wanting  those  who  imagined  that 
the   Council   of  the   Vatican  in   1870  would  adopt   the 
discipline  of  the  Eastern  Church  and  permit  marriage  to 
the  inferior  orders.     Any  such  expectations  were  destined 
to  be  disappointed  as  soon  as  the  preliminary  machinery 
of  the  council  became  known.     A  congregazione  centrale 
was  appointed  by  Pius  IX.  in  advance,  consisting  exclu- 
sively of  cardinals  connected  with  the  Inquisition,  and  to 
this  body  was  delegated  the  sole  determination  of  the 
matters  to  be  submitted  to   the   council  for   discussion. 
Under  this  congregazione,  and  presided  over  by  its  mem- 
bers, were  five  consulte,  to  act  as  sub-committees  on  the 
subjects  respectively  confided  to  their  deliberations.     The 
consulta  on  faith  and  dogma  was  under  the  presidency  of 
Cardinal  Bilio,  notorious  as  the  compiler  of  the  Syllabus 
of  December  1864,  and  that  on  canons  and  discipline  was 
committed  to  Cardinal  Catarini,  whose  whole  career  had 
been  passed  in  the  Inquisition,  and  who  had  acquired  a 
sinister  fame  by  his  rigorous  punishment  of  all  attempts 
at  reform.     If,  as  the  Church  asserts,  the  proceedings  of 
general  councils  are  under  the  immediate  operation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  it  will  be   seen  what    reverent   care   was 
observed  to  keep  Him  in  due  subjection,  and  to  spare  the 
Church  the    scandal    of  being    brought    by  thoughtless 
innovators  into  opposition  with  Him. 

As  the  destined  outcome  of  the  council  was  simply  the 
dogma  of  papal  infallibility,  the  hopes  of  the  anti-celiba- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  329 

tarians  were  transferred  to  the  schism  precipitated  by  it, 
and  known  as  that  of  the  Old  Cathohcs.  In  1875  a 
Dean  Suczinsky  married  the  Baroness  Gazewaska,  and 
joined  the  schismatics,  when  the  Prussian  Government 
decided  to  protect  him  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  temporah- 
ties,  and  his  new  brethren  agreed  to  receive  him,  and  thus 
committed  themselves  on  the  question  of  celibacy — a 
decision  confirmed  in  1878  by  the  synod  of  Bonn,  which 
decreed,  by  a  vote  of  75  against  22,  that  the  prohibition  of 
the  canons  is  not  an  obstacle  to  the  marriage  of  ecclesias- 
tics, or  to  the  cure  of  souls  by  married  priests.  It  required 
no  common  conscientiousness  and  strength  of  purpose  for 
men  like  von  Dollinger,  von  Schulte,  Reusch,  and  their 
companions,  upheld  by  their  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
past,  to  sever  themselves  from  the  Church  in  which  they 
had  been  nurtured,  when  so  many  of  those  on  whose  co- 
operation they  had  relied  allowed  themselves  to  be  coerced 
into  subscribing  to  a  doctrine  the  untenability  of  which 
they  had  exposed/  What,  however,  is  to  be  the  eventual 
outcome  of  their  self-sacrifice  time  alone  can  determine. 
The  struggle  in  France  over  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State  shows  that  Ultramontanism  is  unyielding,  and  that 
the  Vatican  is  resolved  to  rule  or  ruin.  It  is  irrecon- 
cilable, and  those  who  will  not  submit  blindly  to  its 
demands  have  no  choice  but  heresy  or  schism.  This  can 
scarce  fail  to  broaden  the  movement  of  Los  von  Rom,  which 
in  Austria  has  already  cost  the  Church  so  many  thousand 
souls ;  and  while  most  of  these  have  gone  over  to  the 
EvangeHcals,  the  Old  Cathohcs  in  the  German  portions 
of  the  Austrian  Empire  claim  23,000  members,  and  are 
growing  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  a  year.  In  Bavaria  and 
the  Rhine  lands  they  are  said  to  be  numerous,  and  in 
Switzerland  the  canton  of  Geneva  alone  numbers  them 

1  See  Goetz,   Franz   Heinrich  Reusch  :   eine  Darstellung  seiner  Lebensarbeit, 
Gotha,  1901. 


330  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

at  4300.  Holland  has  its  share  ;  and  in  the  United  States 
they  have  long  been  organised,  having  had  about  four 
thousand  communicants  as  early  as  1892.  A  cognate 
movement  is  on  foot  in  France,  where  the  uncompromis- 
ing stand  of  the  Vatican  on  the  Law  of  Separation  is 
directly  provocative  of  schism.  Akin  to  this  is  the 
separatist  Polish  National  Church  of  America,  which  at 
the  present  moment  is  considering  the  question  of  abrogat- 
ing priestly  celibacy.  It  is  useless  to  forecast  the  future, 
but  he  is  blind  to  the  portents  of  the  times  who  does  not 
recognise  that  there  are  elements  at  work  which,  if  met 
with  the  eternal  non  possumus,  may  seriously  threaten 
unity.  ^ 

Another  serious  blow  in  the  matter  of  marriage  has 
been  dealt  by  the  adoption  in  successive  Catholic  states  of 
what  is  known  as  civil  marriage,  by  which  matrimony  is 
withdrawn  from  the  exclusive  control  of  the  Church,  and 
the  sacrament  and  benediction  are  declared  to  be  accidents 
not  necessary  to  the  legal  status  of  husband  and  wife  or  to 
the  legitimacy  and  heritable  capacity  of  children.  We  have 
already  seen  that  this  was  one  of  the  legislative  results  of 
the  French  Revolution,  and  the  example  thus  early  set  by 
France  has  been  followed  of  late  by  Italy  and  Austria 
after  its  adoption  in  1853  by  Sardinia,  as  one  of  the 
earliest  reformatory  measures  of  Cavour.  Yet  the  Church 
positively  refuses  to  regard  such  marriages  as  entitled  to 
respect.  This  is  a  trouble  of  old  date,  for  when,  in  1744, 
Benedict  XIV.  was  informed  that  in  Belgium  parties  who 
were  obliged  by  the  law  to  present  themselves  before  the 
civil  magistrate  and  declare  their  intention  to  be  man  and 
wife  frequently  neglected  to  invoke  the  ministration  of 
the  priest,  he  pronounced  such  marriages  to  be  invalid, 

1  There  may  be  possible  promise  of  a  new  alignment  in  the  report  (January 
1907),  that  Archbishop  Messmer,  of  Milwaukee,  publicly  holds  out  the  prospect 
that  Episcopal  clergymen  may  be  received  as  priests  in  the  Catholic  Church  with- 
out being  obliged  to  abandon  their  wives. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  331 

and  this  was  repeated  by  Pius  VI.  in  1791  and  Pius  VII. 
in   1808.     It  is  therefore  not   surprising  that  when   the 
project  was  under  discussion  in  Italy,  the  Unitd  Cattolica, 
one  of  the  papal  organs,  in  its  issue  of  16  July,  1864,  did 
not   hesitate   to   assert   that   the   establishment    of    civil 
matrimony  was  establishing  the  liberty  of  licentiousness, 
and  that,  after  having  scattered  houses  of  ill-fame  through- 
out Italy,  it  would  convert  the  whole  peninsula  into  one 
brothel.     In    a    similar    spirit,    the    Papal    Penitentiary, 
15  January,  1866,  issued  instructions  reciting  a  decision  of 
Pius  IX.  in  secret  consistory,  27  September,  1852,  that 
civil  marriage  without  the  sacrament  was  nothing  but  a 
foul  and  destructive  cohabitation,  whence  it  was  deduced 
that  the  civil  authorities  have  no  power  over  marriage  or 
divorce,  and  Pius  IX.  followed  this  by  an  allocution  of 
30  October,  1866,  denouncing  it  as  leading  to  an  organised 
system  of  scandalous  concubinage.^     When,  in  May  1868, 
Austria  followed  the  example  of   Italy,  Pius   within    a 
month   delivered   an   allocution    in   which    he   not   only 
condemned  the  "  abominable  law,"  but  declared  it  to  be 
null  and  void ;    and    Cardinal    Rauscher,    Archbishop  of 
Vienna,  issued  a  manifesto  in  which  he  not  only  denied 
that  the  civil  contract  constituted  marriage,  and  directed 
that  children  sprung  from  such  unions  should  be  entered 
on  the  parish  registers  as  neither  legitimate  nor  illegiti- 
mate, but  gave  positive  instructions  that  absolution  should 
be  denied,  even  in  ariiculo  inortis,  to  all  parties  who  had 
cohabited  in  such  unions — thus  stigmatising  them  as  worse 
than  concubinage.     In  a  similar  spirit,  when,  in  1869,  civil 
marriage  was  proclaimed  under  the  short-lived  republic  of 
Spain,  the  clergy,  under  inspiration    from    the  Vatican, 
denounced  it  as  concubinage,  and  threatened  to  suspend 
the  celebration  of  the  Mass.     The  law,  in  fact,  excited 
much  popular  feeling,  for   it   made   the   civil   ceremony 

1  Appendix  ad  Concil.  Plenar.  Americse.  Latinae,  pp.  739-42. 


332  SACEKDOTAL  CELIBACY 

essential,  and  declared  that  without  it  the  solemnisation  in 
church  did  not  confer  the  legal  status  of  man  and  wife, 
so  that  with  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy  it  was 
promptly  repealed,  and  an  effort  to  restore  it  was  rejected 
by  an  emphatic  vote  of  the  Cortes  in  February  1883. 
With  the  more  liberal  tendencies  that  have  since  prevailed, 
the  matter  has  been  again  taken  up,  and  its  recognition  has 
been  the  subject  of  fierce  dissension.  Leo  XIII.  was 
vigorous  in  his  opposition  to  the  innovation.  In  his  first 
encyclical,  issued  21  April,  1878,  he  declared  that 
"citizens,  profaning  the  dignity  of  Christian  marriage, 
have  adopted  legal  concubinage  in  place  of  religious 
matrimony  "  ;  and  he  returned  to  the  attack  in  a  special 
encyclical  on  the  subject,  published  10  February,  1880. 
In  this  he  assumes  that,  as  "by  the  will  of  Christ  the 
Church  alone  can  and  ought  to  legislate  and  decide  con- 
cerning sacraments,  so  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  attempt 
to  transfer  any,  even  the  smallest  part,  of  her  power  to 
the  government  of  the  state,"  and  therefore  "judicial 
sentences  on  conjugal  contracts,  as  to  whether  they  have 
been  entered  upon  rightly  or  wrongly,"  are  a  direct 
infringement  of  the  rights  of  the  Churchy  whether  those 
judgments  be  adverse  or  not  to  the  canons.^ 

The  earlier  passages  of  this  encyclical  are  so  warm  and 
eloquent  a  defence  of  the  holiness  of  matrimony,  as  the 
natural  condition  of  man  decreed  by  God,  that  it  would 
probably  trouble  its  author  to  explain  why  so  exalted  and 
divine  a  state  should  be  prohibited  to  the  ministers  of  the 
God  who  devised  it  and  fitted  his  creatures  specially  for  it. 
It  is  easy,  however,  to  account  for  the  bitter  and  persistent 
opposition  of  the  Church  to  the  civil  marriage  laws  without 
attributing  it  to  the  control  which  the  monopoly  of  the 
sacrament  gives  it  over  the  faithful,  and  the  lucrative  nature 
of  the  business  thus  brought  to  the  Curia.     More  important 

1  Acta  Leonis,  PP.  XIII.,  T.  I.  p.  54  ;  T.  II.  p.  10. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  333 

than  these  is  the  fact  that  under  the  laws  the  State  has 
the  power  to  permit  clerical  marriage.  For  more  than 
half  a  century  such  laws  had  existed  in  France,  but  as  the 
French  tribunals  leaned  towards  upholding  ecclesiastical 
celibacy,  they  were  acquiesced  in  comparatively  in  silence. 
When  Italy,  however,  followed  the  example,  it  was  seen 
that  the  temper  of  the  Italian  Government  would  lead  to 
construing  them  in  a  sense  favourable  to  priestly  liberty, 
and  hence  the  opposition,  which  has  been  justified  and 
intensified  by  the  result.  Immediately  on  the  passage  of 
the  Civil  Marriage  Act,  Dr.  Prota,  of  Naples,  an  energetic 
reformer  within  the  Church,  in  a  letter  of  30  October, 
1865,  advised  all  his  clerical  friends  to  marry  and  to  persist 
in  the  exercise  of  their  functions,  "  and  the  more  who  do 
so  at  once  and  simultaneously  the  safer  for  all,  for  the 
bishops  will  venture  the  less  to  persecute  you  in  the  face 
of  public  opinion. "  Accordingly,  cases  of  priestly  marriage 
commenced  to  occur,  and  when  they  were  contested  their 
validity  was  confirmed  by  the  tribunals.  The  superior 
courts  of  Genoa,  Trani,  and  Palermo  successively  decided 
in  this  sense ;  and  finally,  in  1869,  occurred  the  case  of 
Andrea  Treglia,  of  the  diocese  of  Salerno,  which  settled 
the  question  in  Naples.  The  municipal  officers  of  Vietri 
refused  to  marry  him  ;  the  court  of  Salerno  decided  against 
him,  but  when  the  matter  was  carried  up  to  the  court  of 
appeals  of  Naples  judgment  was  rendered  in  his  favour, 
and  he  was  married  forthwith — thus  legitimating  the 
unions  of  some  fifty  priests  who  had  preceded  him,  with- 
out the  question  having  been  settled  by  the  tribunal  of  last 
resort.  In  the  organ  of  the  reforming  Catholics  of  Naples, 
the  Emancipatore  Cattolica,  it  was  not  without  interest  to 
see  the  successive  marriages  chronicled  with  the  same 
satisfaction  as  that  evinced  by  Spalatin  in  the  stormy  days 
of  Luther.^     In  Austria  the  Church  succeeded  better  in 

1  Naples  was  perhaps  the  first   kingdom   in    Europe   to    promulgate  a    civil 


334  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

maintaining  its  hold  upon  those  who  had  once  entered 
its  service.  The  Civil  ]\Iarriage  Law  encouraged  a 
number  of  priests  to  marry,  but  in  1891  the  journals 
announced  a  decision  by  the  High  Court  of  Appeals,  in 
the  case  of  one  who  abandoned  the  Catholic  faith  in  1870 
and  who  married  in  1879,  to  the  effect  that  a  man  who 
had  vowed  a  life  of  celibacy  could  not  be  released  from 
his  vow. 

Yet  the  whole  question  is  one  of  but  slender  practical 
importance.  In  no  country  is  the  Catholic  Church  sub- 
servient to  the  State.  It  controls  its  own  sacraments,  and 
no  government  is  likely  to  venture  upon  interference  with 
it  in  its  own  sphere.  While  therefore  it  may  be  deprived 
of  the  power  to  persecute  and  punish  those  of  its  members 
who  enter  upon  civil  marriage,  it  yet  possesses  the  ability 
to  deprive  them  of  their  functions,  which  in  most  cases  is 
equivalent  to  depriving  them  of  bread ;  and  it  has  an 
unquestioned  right  to  expel  them  from  its  communion. 
The  priest  who  marries,  therefore,  is  virtually  separated 
from  his  Church  and  deprived  of  his  means  of  livelihood — 
motives  which,  combined  with  the  moral  forces  at  work 
to  keep  men  within  the  accustomed  bounds,  are  quite 
sufficient  to  prevent  defection  from  growing  common,  or 
to  render  marriage  with  a  priest  attractive  to  women  above 
the  lowest  class.  Even  in  the  United  States,  where  there 
is  no  legal  impediment  to  priestly  marriage,  and  the  tone 
of  society  is  such  as  rather  to  welcome  those  who  escape 
from  the  pale  of  Rome,  such  cases  are  rare,  although  of  late 
years  they  seem  to  be  increasing.  While,  therefore,  the  civil 
marriage  laws  of  Europe  unquestionably  loosen  the  ties 
which  in  this  respect  bind  the  priest  to  his  Church,  there 
are  still  sufficient  material  and  moral  forces  at  work  to 


marriage  law  and  to  withdraw  matrimonial  cases  from  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 
This  was  one  of  the  reforms  of  the  minority  of  Ferdinand  IV.  about  the  year  1760. 
See  Colletti's  History  of  Naples,  Horner's  translation,  I.  107. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  335 

prevent   desertions   from  this  cause  from  assuming  any 
serious  proportions. 

The  monastic  Orders  have  not  escaped  the  innovating 
spirit  of  modern  times,  and  CathoHc  lands  have  followed, 
to  a  large  extent,  the  example  set  in  the  sixteenth  century 
by  Henry  VIII.   and    the    German    Protestant   princes. 
The  excessive  multiplication  of  the  "  religious  "  and  the 
enormous  accumulation   of   property  in  mortmain  were 
recognised   as   an    evil  calling  for    repression  as  soon  as 
the    old-time    veneration    for    the    Church    declined   in 
the  irreverential  spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century.      The 
expulsion    of    the    Jesuits,    from  Portugal,    France,  and 
Spain,   between  1759    and  1767,  and  the  suppression  of 
the  Order   by    Clement    XIV.   in  the  bull  Dominus  ac 
Redemptor,  24  July,  1773,  gave  the  impulse.     The  Em- 
peror Joseph   II.,  in    a  series  of  measures  from  1772  to 
1784,    greatly  reduced    the    religious  Orders  in  his  own 
dominions  and  suppressed  the  contemplative  ones,  which 
contributed   nothing  visible   to  the    benefit   of   society.^ 
His  brother,   Leopold  of  Tuscany,  desired  to  abolish  all 
the  Orders  and  replace  them  with  one  which  should  serve 
as  a  retreat  for  pious  souls,  but  he  felt  himself  not  strong 
enough,  and  ventured    only  on   partial  measures.^     The 
French  Revolution  followed,  with   its  decisive  action  of 
secularising  all  Church  property  by    the   decree   of  the 
National  Assembly  of  2  November,  1789,  and  the  sup- 
pression of    the    Orders,  13    February,  1790.     Germany 
yielded  to   the    temptation,  and  by   the  Reichsrecess  of 
25  February,  1803,  secularised  the  bishoprics  and  monastic 
foundations ;    everywhere    but  in    Austria    the    religious 
houses    were    gradually  suppressed,   and    their  buildings 


1  Wetzer  und  Welte,   Encyclopadie,   VI.    1853. — Herzog,   Real    Encyclopadie, 
XIV.  50. 

2  Scaduto,  Stato  e  Chiesa  sotto  Leopolde  I.  p.  296  (Firenze,  1885). 


336  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

were  converted  into  barracks,  prisons,  insane  asylums, 
and  the  like/  In  Spain,  the  Napoleonic  invasion  laid 
waste  many  convents,  and  the  Cortes  of  Cadiz  in  1813 
decreed  that  none  should  be  restored  which  had  less  than 
twelve  inmates,  and  that  there  should  not  be  more  than 
one  of  each  Order  in  any  one  place.  ^  The  Revolution  of 
1820  went  further,  suppressing  the  monastic  Orders  and 
consolidating  the  houses  of  the  mendicants,  all  of  which 
was  revoked  by  the  reaction  of  1823.^  In  the  troubles 
following  the  death  of  Ferdinand  VII.  in  1833,  the  Regency 
was  forced  to  rely  on  the  Liberals :  a  policy  was  adopted 
of  suppressing  the  religious  Orders  and  secularising 
Church  property,  which  during  the  ensuing  fifteen  years, 
amid  various  fluctuations,  gradually  destroyed  them.  The 
process  was  by  no  means  always  peaceable.  In  1835  the 
revolutionary  juntas  rose  against  them,  burning  many  of 
the  houses,  ejecting  the  inmates  and  slaying  some  of  them. 
The  decrees  of  8  March,  1836,  and  29  July,  1837,  extin- 
guished the  convents  with  few  exceptions  ;  even  the  nuns 
were  turned  out  and  left  to  perish  in  misery,  although  the 
funds  of  their  convents  consisted  largely  of  the  dowers 
which  they  had  brought.*  The  Concordat  of  1851,  how- 
ever, re-established  the  Orders  devoted  to  works  of  charity 
and  education  ;  but  the  royal  decrees  issued  in  execution 
of  these  provisions  placed  them  under  Government  super- 
vision and  subject  to  strict  limitations,^  in  spite  of  which 
they  have  flourished  and  multiplied  largely,  leading  to 
political  vicissitudes  of  which  the  end  is  not  as  yet  apparent. 
In  Portugal  the  process  was  more  summary.    The  Emperor 

1  Wetzer  und  Welte,  X.  1528-9.— Herzog,  XIV.  52.— Bruck,  Kathol.  Kirche  in 
Deutschland,  I.  3, 192. 

2  Lafuente,  Hist.  Gen.  de  Espana,  XXV.  412. — Collecion  de  los  Decretas*  de  las 
Cortes,  III.  211. 

3  Lafuente,  XXVII.  207.— Castillo  y  Maiyone,  Frailesmonia,  II.  236-7. 

4  Castillo  y  Ayensa,  Negociaciones  con  Roma,  I.   120. — Vicinte  de  la  Fuente, 
Hist.  Eclesiastica  de  Espana,  III.  497. 

5  El  Concordato  del851,  pp.  125-8,  145-6  (Madrid,  1882). 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  337 

Pedro  I.  of  Brazil,  as  regent  for  his  daughter,  Maria  da 
Gloria,  by   decree    of  15  August,   1833,  suppressed    the 
convents  and  the  military  Orders  ;  the  promised  pensions 
of  the  ejected  inmates  were  not  paid,  and  they  suffered  the 
extremity  of  want.^     When    Italy  ceased  to  be   a  geo- 
graphical expression   and  was  consolidated   under  Victor 
Emanuel,  the  law  of  28  June,  1866,  with  its  supplements 
of  15  August,  1867,  and    19  June,  1873,  completed   the 
destruction    of  the    religious    houses,   confiscated    their 
property,  and  pensioned  the  inmates  with  from  144  to  600 
lire  per  annum,  according  to  their  position.     Two  excep- 
tions were  made  :  Monte   Cassino,  the  venerable   mother 
of  Western  monachism,  was  spared,   and  provision   was 
made  for  its  maintenance  as  a  national  monument ;  while 
Savonarola's  convent  of  San  Marco  was  preserved,  rather 
perhaps  on  account  of  its  frescoes  than  of  its  associations. 
The  process  of  ejectment  was  summary.    Panzini  speaks 
with  indignation  of  the  files  of  soldiery  sent  to  drive  from 
their  houses  the  terrified  nuns,  who  were  thrown  upon 
a  world  with  which  they  were  by  their  training  utterly 
unfit  to  cope  ;  ^  and  early  in  1867  the  journals  reported  that 
nearly  all  the  inmates  of  the  monasteries  were  dispersed, 
some  of  them  returning  to  their  families,  some  of  them 
accepting  refuge  offered  to  them  by  the  charitable,  but 
most  of   them  clubbing   together  and  hiring  houses    in 
which  to  live  as  of  old. 

In  France,  under  the  Concordat  of  1801,  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  monachism  was  strictly  prohibited,  but  some 
organisations  succeeded  in  forming  themselves.  Charitable 
associations  of  females  were  encouraged  and  flourished^ 
while  male  brotherhoods  which  proved  politically  dan- 
gerous were  crushed  without  ceremony.  Even  under  the 
Restoration  popular  antagonism  was  still  so  strong  that 

1  Wetzer  und  Welte,  X.  1533. 

2  Panzini,  op.  cit.  pp.  596-7. 

VOL.  II.  Y 


338  SACERDOTAL   CELIBACY 

the  efforts  made  by  Charles  X.,  from  1825  to  1827,  to 
introduce  the  Jesuits  and  other  male  Orders  aroused  strong 
opposition,  and  the  elections  of  1827  settled  the  question 
definitely  in  the  negative.^  The  constitutional  Government 
of  Louis  Philippe,  from  1830  to  1848,  showed  itself  per- 
sistently hostile  ;  but  the  Second  Republic  was  more  liberal, 
and  the  Second  Empire  ostentatiously  sought  the  alliance 
of  the  Church.  After  the  fall  of  Louis  Napoleon,  the 
reactionary  Government  of  Marshal  MacMahon  continued 
this  alliance,  and  the  result  was  seen  in  the  enormous 
growth  of  the  regular  Orders  in  wealth,  members,  and 
influence.  This,  after  republicanism  had  been  firmly 
established  by  the  will  of  the  people,  became  a  serious 
menace  to  the  tranquillity  of  the  State,  for  by  its  vital 
principle  monachism  owes  its  allegiance  first  to  the  Holy 
See  and  secondarily  to  the  land  from  which  its  members 
are  drawn.  A  long  struggle  ensued,  commencing  with 
the  Ferry  laws  on  education  in  1879 — a  struggle  in  which 
the  expatriation  of  the  monastic  Orders  became  merely  an 
incident,  and  culminating  in  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State.  The  struggle  thus  has  assumed  the  wider  aspect 
of  the  internecine  conflict  between  mediaeval  theocracy  on 
the  one  side  and  civil  and  religious  liberty  on  the  other. 
The  issue  is  still  undecided,  and  it  is  not  for  us  to  predict 
the  result. 

Nor  has  this  anti-monastic  movement  been  confined  to 
the  Old  World,  for  the  example  of  Europe  has  been  fol- 
lowed in  many  of  the  former  Spanish  colonies.  Paraguay 
led  the  way,  in  1824,  by  suppressing  all  monasteries  as  use- 
less, and  Brazil,  in  1829,  prohibited  the  entrance  of  men 
devotees,  thus  condemning  the  existing  institutions  to 
gradual  extinction.  Mexico,  by  a  series  of  laws  from 
1856  to  1863,  suppressed  the  religious  Orders  and  confis- 

1  Dutibleul,  Histoire  des  Corporations  religieuses,  pp.  411  sqq.  (Paris,  1846). — 
Dupin,  Droit  ecolesiastique,  pp.  285-98. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  339 

cated  their  property.  New  Granada  was  even  more 
prompt,  by  legislation  commencing  in  1852  and  culminat- 
ing in  1863.  Venezuela  did  the  same  in  1874.  Ecuador 
in  1899  secularised  all  ecclesiastical  property,  and  Nicaragua 
is  understood  to  be  preparing  for  similar  action. 

So  general  a  movement  in  both  hemispheres,  by  nations 
professing  Catholicism,  cannot  be  explained  simply  by 
greed  for  the  overgrown  possessions  of  the  Church, 
although  that  has  unquestionably  borne  its  share  in 
tempting  governments  to  replenish  their  exhausted 
treasuries.  It  is  an  evidence  that  mediaeval  monasticism 
has  outlived  the  influences  which  fostered  its  growth  to 
such  enormous  proportions,  and  that,  whatever  may  have 
been  its  services  of  old,  they  no  longer  correspond  to  the 
wants  of  the  present  sufficiently  to  justify  its  absorption 
of  so  large  a  portion  of  the  resources  and  productive 
energies  of  society.  It  further  indicates  the  convictions 
of  statesmen  that  such  corporations,  dissociated  from  their 
environment  by  the  vow  of  celibacy,  having  interests  dis- 
tinct from  those  of  their  fellow  citizens,  indissolubly  bound 
together  and  owing  allegiance,  not  to  their  own  rulers  but 
to  a  foreign  chief,  are  politically  as  well  as  economically 
undesirable. 

It  only  remains  for  us  to  consider  what  is  the  present 
effect  of  celibacy  on  the  moral  condition  of  the  Church, 
and  whether  it  has  succeeded,  after  fifteen  centuries  of 
fruitless  effort,  in  at  last  obtaining  a  priesthood  whose 
chastity  is  more  than  nominal.  At  the  commencement 
of  the  struggle,  the  great  apostle  of  asceticism,  St.  Jerome, 
calmed  the  fears  of  those  who  dreaded  a  diminution  of 
population  from  the  spread  of  vows  of  continence,  by 
assuring  them  that  few  would  be  found  to  persevere  to  the 
end  in  a  task  so  difficult  as  the  maintenance  of  virginity.^ 

1  Noli  metuere  ne  omnes  virgines  fiant ;  difficilis  res  est  virginitas,  et  ideo  rara, 


340  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Has,  then,  human  nature  changed  during  the  interval,  and 
has  the  Church  been  justified  in  its  assertion  at  the  Council 
of  Trent  that  God  would  not  withhold  the  gift  of  chastity 
from  those  who  rightly  seek  it,  or  permit  us  to  be  tempted 
beyond  our  strength  ?  ^  It  is  certainly  not  so  easy  to 
answer  this  question  now  as  we  have  seen  it  in  former 
ages,  when  men  were  more  plain-spoken  and  less  decent, 
when  offences  against  morality  were  committed  more 
openly,  and  when  they  were  denounced  both  by  the 
Church  and  its  enemies  with  a  distinctness  of  utterance 
unfit  for  modern  ears.  Yet  it  is  not  impossible  to  find 
some  evidence  bearing  on  the  question  which  may  enable 
the  impartial  inquirer  to  arrive  at  a  conclusion. 

The  Church  is  unquestionably  violating  the  precept 
"  Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God  "  when,  in  its 
reliance  that  the  gift  of  chastity  will  accompany  ordination, 
it  confers  the  sub-diaconate  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  and 
the  priesthood  at  twenty-five  ^ — or  even  earlier  by  special 
dispensation — and  then  turns  loose  young  men,  at  the  age 
when  the  passions  are  the  strongest,  trained  in  the  seminary 
and  unused  to  female  companionship,  to  occupy  a  position 
in  which  they  are  brought  into  the  closest  and  most 
dangerous  relations  with  women  who  regard  them  as 
beings  gifted  with  supernatural  powers  and  holding  in 
their  hands  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  ardour  with  which  the  vows  were  taken, 
the  youth  thus  exposed  to  temptations  hitherto  unknown 
finds  his  virtue  rudely  assailed  when  in  the  confessional 
female  lips  repeat  to  him  the  story  of  lustful  longings,  and 

quia  difficilis.     Incipere  plurimorum  est,  perseverare  paucorum. — Hieron.  adv.  Jovin. 
I.  36. 

1  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxiv.     De  Sacrament.  Matrim.  c.  ix. 

2  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxiii.  De  Eeform.  c.  xii.  The  Abbe  Chavard  relates 
(Le  Celibat  des  Pretres,  p.  269)  that  be  once  asked  the  directors  of  a  seminary 
whether  the  age  for  assuming  the  burdens  of  the  priesthood  ought  not  to  be  post- 
poned to  the  fortieth  year,  and  he  was  told  that  the  Church  must  have  priests,  and 
that  there  were  few  indeed  who  would  submit  to  its  conditions  after  the  age  of 
illusions  was  passed. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  341 

he  recognises  in  himself  instincts  and  passions  which  are 
only  the  stronger  by  reason  of  their  whilom  repression. 
That  a  youthful  spiritual  director,  before  whom  are  thrown 
down  all  the  barriers  with  which  the  prudent  reserve  of 
society  surrounds  the  social  intercourse  of  the  sexes,  should 
too  often  find  that  he  has  over-estimated  his  self-control, 
is  more  than  probable. 

This,  of  course,  is  merely  a  priori  reasoning,  and  of 
itself  proves  nothing,  except  the  extreme  imprudence  of  a 
system  which  applies  fire  to  straw  and  assumes  that  com- 
bustion will  not  follow.  Doubtless  there  are  cases  in 
which  the  assumption  is  justified  by  the  result — whole 
countries,  indeed,  where  scandals  are  few.  In  Ireland,  for 
instance,  we  rarely  hear  of  immoral  priests,  though  such 
cases  would  be  relentlessly  exposed  by  the  interests  adverse 
to  Catholicism,  and  the  proverbial  chastity  of  the  Irish 
women  may  be  both  a  cause  and  a  consequence  of  this. 
In  the  United  States,  also,  troubles  of  the  kind  only  come 
occasionally  to  public  view  ;  but  here  again  the  Church 
is  surrounded  by  antagonistic  Churches.  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  extreme  care  with 
which  the  Church  avoids  scandal  renders  it  impossible  for 
one  not  within  the  pale  to  ascertain  what  may  really  be 
the  relations  between  ecclesiastics  and  the  female  ser- 
vants whom,  as  we  shall  see,  they  are  permitted  to  keep 
in  their  houses.^ 

1  Possibly  some  insight  into  the  moral  status  of  the  American  priesthood  may 
be  obtained  from  the  work  of  Father  Miiller,  a  zealous  Eedemptorist,  which  bears  the 
approbation  of  Cardinal  McCloskey  and  of  the  Eedemptorist  Superior.  As  regards 
chastity,  he  tells  us  that  "  God  calls  no  man  to  any  state  or  office  without  giving 
him  at  the  same  time  the  necessary  graces"  (Part  ii.  p.  260).  In  spite  of  this  he 
utters  the  warning,  "  The  good  priest  should  also  beware  lest  he  become  too  affec- 
tionate and  familiar  with  some  favourite  niece  or  cousin,  because  she  may  easily 
become  pitch  and  bird-lime"  (Ibid.  p.  278).  One  may  gather  from  his  long  and 
fervid  exhortation  to  beware  of  drink  that  intemperance  is  the  besetting  sin  of  the 
priesthood  (Part  iv.  pp.  98-112),  and  he  couples  wine  and  women  together  in  a 
manner  to  imply  that  the  combination  produces  many  blasted  careers.  *'  How 
many  have  renounced  the  priesthood  altogether  on  account  of  women  and  drink  ? 
How  many  have  apostatised  and  even  turned  preachers  on  account  of  women  and 


342  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

In  lands  where  Catholicism  is  dominant  I  fear  that 
there   can   be   little   doubt   as   to   this,  although  Ernest 
Renan,  a  witness  of  unquestionable  impartiality,   whose 
clerical  training  gave  him  every  opportunity  of  observa- 
tion, declares  emphatically  that  he  has  known  no  priests 
but  good  priests,  and  that  he  has  never  seen  even  the 
shadow  of  a  scandal/     In  spite  of  the  Niceean  canon,  on 
which   the    rule    of    celibacy    has    virtually   rested,    the 
Church,  after  a  struggle  of  more  than  a  thousand  years, 
was  forced   to  admit    the  "  subintroducta  mulier "  as  an 
inmate  of  the  priest's    domicile.     The   order   of  Nature 
on  this  point  refused  so  obstinately  to  be  set  aside  that 
the    Council   of  Trent   finally    recognised    women    as  a 
necessary  evil,  and  only  sought  to  regulate  the  necessity 
by  forbidding  those  in  holy  orders  from  keeping  in  their 
houses  or  maintaining  any  relations  with    concubines  or 
women  liable   to   suspicion.^     It  is   true  that  the  severe 
virtue   of  St.    Charles    Borromeo   refused    to  grant  to  a 
septuagenary  priest  a  licence    for  more    than  a  year  for 
the  residence  of  a  sister  equally  aged,  and  forced  him  to 
apply  annually  for  its  renewal ;    it  is  also  true   that  the 
Council  of  Rome,   in   1725,   allowed    the    residence   of 
women  only  within  the  first  and  second  degrees  of  kin- 
dred ;  ^  but  in  modern  times  the  Tridentine  canon  has  been 
interpreted  as  allowing  the  residence  of  female  servants  or 
housekeepers,  in  view  of  the  hardship  of  doing  without 
domestics  and  the  expense  of  employing  men.     In  order 

drink  ?    How  many  have  met  an  untimely  end  on  account  of  women  and  drink  ?  " 
(Part  II.  p.  275.)    Mtillei's  The  Catholic  Priesthood,  New  York,  1885. 

1  Souvenirs  d'Enfance  et  de  Jeunesse,  Paris,  1883,  p.  139.  "  Le  fait  est  que  ce 
qu'on  dit  des  moeurs  clericales  est,  selon  mon  experience,  denue  de  tout  fondement. 
J'ai  passe  treize  ans  de  ma  vie  entre  les  mains  des  pretres,  je  n'ai  pas  vu  I'ombre 
d'un  scandale ;  je  n'ai  connu  que  de  bons  pretres.  La  confession 'peut  avoir,  dans 
certains  pays,  de  graves  inconvenients.  Je  n'en  ai  pas  vu  une  trace  dans  mon 
jeunesse  ecclesiastique." 

2  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxv.     De  Reform,  cap.  xiv. 

3  Convent.  Episcc.  Mediolanens.  ann.  1849  Sess.  in.  No.  18  (Collect.  Lacens. 
VI.  717).— Concil.  Roman,  ann.  1725  Tit.  xvi.  c.  iii.  (ib.  I.  372). 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  343 

to  meet  the  Tridentine  caution  to  avoid  suspicion,  efforts 
have  sometimes  been  made  to  define  a  minimum  "  canoni- 
cal "  age  for  these  women,  varying  from  thirty  to  fifty 
years,  but  usually  placed  at  forty — a  palliative  which,  as 
might  be  expected,  accomplishes  little,  even  when,  as  is 
not  always  the  case,  the  rule  is  observed  more  scrupulously 
than  by  the  device  of  dividing  the  canonical  age  and 
keeping  two  girls  of  twenty/  The  careful  provisions  as  to 
the  age  and  character  of  these  "  Marthas,"  and  the  prohibi- 
tions of  manifestations  of  undue  familiarity  with  them — 
especially  in  public — are  scrupulously  enumerated  in  the 
latest  assembly  of  Catholic  prelates,  the  Plenary  Council 
of  Latin  America,  held  in  Rome  in  1899.^  These  pre- 
cautions are  not  uncalled  for  if  there  is  truth  in  the  state - 

1  For  the  varying  legislation  on  this  subject  the  reader  may  refer  to  C.  Bene- 
ventan.  ann.  1693  Tit.  xviil.  c.  iii.  (Collect.  Lacens.  I.  44.) — Synod.  Bahiens.  ann. 
1707  Lib.  III.  (I.  854.)— C.  Tarracon.  ann.   1717  c.  xxxi.  (I.  779.)— C.  Avenionens. 
ann.  1725  Tit.  xxxvii.  c.  iii.  (I.  554).— Synod.  Firmanens.  ann.  1726  Tit.  ix.  (I.  599.) 
— C.  Ebredunens.  ann.  1727  c  v.  No.  5  (I    626).— Synod.  Nat.  Hungar.  ann.  1822 
De  Discip.  renov.  3  (V.  940).— C.  Baltimor.  IV.  ann.  1840  Deer.  x.  (III.  72.)— Conv. 
Episcc.  Mediolan.  ann.  1849  Sess.  m.  No.  18  (VI.  717).  — C.  Turon.  ann.  1849  Deer. 
XI.  i.  (IV.  268-9.)— C.  Avenionens.  ann.  1849  Tit.  vi.  c.  v.  No.   16  (IV.  348).— C. 
Remens.  ann.  1849  Tit.  xii.  c.  ii.  (IV.  129.)— C.  Albiens.  ann.  1850  Tit.  i.  Deer.  v. 
No.  1  (IV.  411).— C.  Burdigal.  ann.  1850  T.  iv.  c.  xii.  No.  3  (IV.  588).— 0.  Bituricens. 
ann,  1850  Tit.  vi.  (IV.  1122.)— C.  Tolosan.  ann.  1850  Tit.  iv.  e.  iv.  No.  126  (IV. 
1069).— C.  Senonens.  ann.  1850  Tit.   IV.  e.  iv.   (IV.   904.)— C.   Aquens.  ann.   1850 
Tit.  V.  §  2,  c.  ix.  No.  1  (IV.  985).— C.  Rothomag.  ann.  1850  Deer.  xi.  No.  3-5  (IV. 
525).— C.  Lugdunens.  ann.  1850  Deer,  xviil.  No.  1-3  (IV.  475).— Synod.  Thurlesiens. 
ann.  1850  Deer.  xvii.  No.  14  (III.  785).— Conv.  Epp.  Lauretan.  ann.  1850  Sect.  i.  v. 
(VI.  778.)— Conv.  Epp.  Sicilice  Tit.  ii.  c.  i.  No.  9  (VI.  815).— C.  Auscitan.  ann.  1851 
Tit.  IV.  e.  i.  No.  147  (IV.  1200).— C.  Quebeeens.  I.  ann.  1851  Deer.  xiv.  (III.  615.)— 
C.  Westmonasteriens.  I.  ann.  1852  Deer.  xxiv.  No.  4  (III.  939).— C.  Quebeeens.  II. 
ann.  1854  Deer.  xiv.  No.  20  (III.  652).— C.  Armaeens.  ann.  1854  Deer,  xxiii.  (III. 
852.)— C.  Portus  Hispanic  ann.  1854  Sect.   II.  No.  5  (III.  1100-1).— C.  Ravennat. 
ann.  1855  P.  iv.  e.  iv.  No.  3  (VI.  198).— C.  Scti.  Ludoviei  II.  ann.  1858  Deer.  vii. 
(III.  318.)— C.  Viennens.  ann.  1858  Tit.  v.  c.  vi.  (V.  197).— 0.  Strigonens.  ann.  1858 
Tit.  VI.  No.  9  (V.  53).— C.  Venetie.  ann.  1859  P.  ll.  e.  xvii.  No.  10-11  (VI.  317).— 0. 
Urbinatens.  ano.  1859  P.  ii.  Tit.  vii.  No.  148  (VI.  51).— C.  Pragens.  ann.  1860  Tit.  i. 
c.  vi.  No.  1  (V.  426).— C.  Coloniens.  ann.  1860  Tit.  ii.  c.  xxxiv.,  xxxviii.  (V.  378-80.) 
— C.  Cincinnatiens.  III.  ann.  1861  Deer.  ix.  (III.  226.)— 0.  tColoniens,  ann.  1863 
Tit.  IV.   c.    iv.  (V.  670.)— C.   Quitens.  ann.   1869  Deer.  iv.  No.    2   (VI.   403).— C. 
Ultrajeetens.    ann.    1865   Tit.   viii.    e.    iv.    (V.    905.)— C.    PI.    Baltimor.  II.  ann. 
1866  Tit.  III.  e.  vi.  No.    164    (III.    446).— C.    Halifaxiens.  ann.  1868  Deer,  xviii. 
(III.  751.) 

2  Acta  et  Decreta  Concil.  Plenar,  Ameriese  Latinae,  p.  281  (Romae,  1900). 


344  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

ment  that  statistics  submitted  to  the  council  showed  that 
in  Latin  America,  of  18,000  priests  three  thousand  were 
Uving  in  regular  wedlock,  four  thousand  in  concubinage 
with  their  so-called  housekeepers,  and  some  fifteen  hundred 
in  relations  more  or  less  open  with  women  of  doubtful 
reputation. 

Few  priests,  it  may  be  assumed,  have  the  self-denial  to 
live  without   this   female   companionship,    which   is  per- 
mitted by  the  Church  as  a  matter  of  course.     Indeed,  the 
census  paper  officially  filled  in  at  the  Vatican  and  returned 
in  January  1882  stated  the  population  of  the  palace  to 
be    500,    of  which    one-third    were   women.     While,  of 
course,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  relations  between  these 
women  and  the  grave  dignitaries  of  the  papal  court  may 
not  be   perfectly  virtuous,  still,   considering   the  age   at 
which  ordination  is  permitted,  it  would  be  expecting  too 
much  of  human  nature  to  believe  that,  in  at  least  a  large 
number  of  cases  among  parish  priests,  the  companionship 
is  not  as  fertile  of  sin  as  we  have  seen  it  to  be  in  every 
previous  age  since  the  ecclesiastic  has  been  deprived  of 
the  natural  institution  of  marriage.    The  "  niece  "  or  other 
female   inmate   of    the    parsonage    throughout    Catholic 
Europe  still  excites  the  smile  of  the  heretic  traveller,  and 
is  looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  course  by  the  parishioner, 
while  the  prelates,  content  if  open  scandal  be  avoided, 
affect  to  regard  the   arrangement  as   harmless,  knowing 
that  it  serves  as  a  preventive  of  more  flagrant  and  more 
public  trouble,  though  the  fact  that  this  companionship  is 
made  the  subject  of  discussion  and  regulation  at  virtually 
eviery  council  or  synod  or  episcopal  convention  held  by  the 
Church  shows  that  privately  it  is  recognised  as  a  necessary 
evil   at  best.     Yet  the  old   sophistry   is    not   forgotten, 
which  proves  that  such  sin  is  less  than  the  infraction  of 
ecclesiastical  laws.     In  a  tract  in  favour  of  celibacy,  pub- 
lished at  Warsaw  in  1801,  with  the  extravagant  laudation 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  345 

of  the  authorities,  argument  is  gravely  made  that  as 
priestly  marriage  is  incestuous,  such  adultery  is  vastly 
worse  than  simple  licentiousness,  the  latter  being  only  a 
lapse  of  the  flesh,  while  marriage  would  be  schism  and 
arrogant  disobedience,  involving  sin  of  a  far  deeper  dye.^ 

It  would,  of  course,  be  vain  to  expect  at  the  present 
day,  from  the  rulers  of  the  Church,  the  outspoken  candour 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  evils  were  denounced  openly 
and  in  the  coarsest  terms.  In  those  days  councils  could 
speak,  because  none  but  those  connected  with  the  Church 
were  likely  to  be  cognisant  of  their  proceedings,  while  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  the  immorality  of 
ecclesiastics  was  so  notorious  that  no  harm  could  arise 
from  admitting  it  in  the  efforts  made  for  its  correction. 
In  modern  times,  however,  when  an  external  veil  of 
decency  is  to  be  maintained  before  the  eyes  of  antagonistic 
critics,  when  scandal  is  of  all  things  to  be  avoided,  and 
when  the  proceedings  of  ecclesiastical  bodies  are  carefully 
revised  at  Rome  before  they  are  allowed  to  become 
public,  ^vith  the  consciousness  that  they  may  be  spread 
by  the  press  before  a  world  of  hostile  mockers,  ready  to 
jeer  at  the  woes  of  the  Church,  only  the  most  guarded 
allusions  can  be  made  to  such  subjects,  and  these  only 
when  the  case  is  urgent.^  When,  therefore,  we  see  that 
almost  every  council  held  in  modern  times  has  deemed  it 
necessary  to  insist  on  the  supreme  importance  of  preserv- 
ing chastity — lying,  swearing,  stealing,  and  other  sins  not 
being  even  alluded  to  ;  when  the  caution  against  undue 
familiarity  with  women,  even  devotees,  is  constantly 
urged  ;  and  when  the  relations  between  the  priest  and 
his  servant  are  frequently  indicated  by  directions  that  he 

1  De  Sacerdotum  Ccelibatu  Doctrina,  Varsovise,  1801,  pp.  62-3. 

2  There  is  in  Kome  a  standing  congregation  for  the  revision  of  provincial 
councils,  consisting  of  twenty-five  members — viz.,  seven  cardinals,  a  secretary,  and 
seventeen  "  consulters."  It  is  connected  with  the  Congregation  of  the  Council  of 
Trent.— Herzog's  Real  Encyclopadie,  VII.  253.— Bangen,  Die  Romische  Curie, 
p.  180  (Munster,  1854). 


346  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

must  not  admit  her  to  companionship  at  the  table,  or  on 
walks  and  journeys,  and  especially  in  visiting  fairs  and 
merrymakings,  it  would  be  difficult  not  to  recognise  under 
this  guarded  phraseology  an  admission  of  the  actual 
relationship  existing  between  the  good  pastors  and  their 
female  inmates,  and  a  friendly  warning,  si  non  caste  saltern 
caute} 

It  is  not  often  that  we  can  obtain  an  inside  view  of 
these  matters,  especially  from  a  source  that  is  at  once  well 
informed  and  not  hostile,  but  such  a  view  is  afforded  by 
an  indignant  remonstrance  addressed,  in  1832,  to  Mon- 
seigneur  Sterckx,  Archbishop  of  Mechlin,  by  the  Abbe 
Helsen,  who  for  twenty-five  years  had  been  a  popular 
preacher  in  Brussels.^  The  abbe  calls  upon  his  prelate  to 
enforce  the  Tridentine  canon  by  banishing  the  women 
who  are  universally  inmates  of  the  houses  of  priests,  and 
thus  put  a  stop  to  the  sin  and  the  scandal  which  destroy 
the  influence  of  the  Church  and  spread  immorality  among 
the  faithful.  Even  the  bishops  and  dignitaries  of  the 
Church  are  not  spared,  and  the  archbishop  himself  is 
summoned  to  dismiss  the  "  Petronilla  "  who  had  accom- 
panied him  from  the  curacy  of  Bouchout  to  the  cathedral 
of  Antwerp,  and  from  Antwerp  to  the  metropolitan  See 
of  Mechlin.^  Throughout  this  plain-spoken  epistle  the 
author  assumes  as  a  matter  of  course  not  only  that  the 
relations  between  the  clergy  and  their  servants  are  guilty, 
but  that  they  are  so  recognised  by  every  one — so  notorious, 
indeed,  as  to  need  no  proof;  and  as  a  natural  conse- 
quence he  regards  the  priesthood  as  a  source  of  infection 
destructive  to  public  morals.     The  cure  is  to  be  found  in 


1  The  Council  of  Ausch,  in  1851,  even  ventures  to  allude  to  the  grave  incon- 
veniences which  may  arise  from  the  residence  of  a  sister  or  aunt  if  young,  and  if 
there  is  not  also  the  mother  or  a  female  servant  in  the  house. 

2  Helsen,  Avis  k  I'Archeveque  de  Malines,  Monseigneur  Sterckx,  sur  les  abus  du 
Celibat  des  Pretres,  4to,  Bruxelles,  1833. 

3  Helsen,  pp.  19-20. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  347 

putting  a  stop  to  these  irregular  unions  :  "  If  women  were 
forever  banished  from  the  houses  of  ecclesiastics  vowed  to 
cehbacy,  I  think  we  should  not  see  so  great  a  number  of 
prostitutes  who  ply  their  trade  at  night  in  our  great  cities, 
nor  so  many  illegitimate  children  who  curse  their  destiny 
as  they  multiply  more  and  more  around  us.  We  ridicule 
the  seraglio  of  the  Grand  Turk  and  the  polygamy  of  the 
Moslem,  but  they  too,  on  their  side,  ridicule  the  infinite 
number  of  strumpets  with  whom  Christian  Europe  is 
deluged,  and  the  custom  of  keeping  as  many  concubines 
as  can  be  afforded.  Whence  comes  to  us  this  shameful 
trade,  so  hurtful  to  society,  which  is  found  under  our 
religion  more  than  under  any  other  ?  We  dare  not  doubt 
that  it  is  the  result  of  our  own  misconduct ;  we  dare  not 
accuse  only  the  heretics  and  the  philosophers  of  modern 
times.  No,  no  !  the  most  poisonous  spring  is  in  us,  among 
us,  with  us,  and  it  will  not  dry  up  without  us.  Let  us 
blush  to  our  eye-balls  ;  let  us  hide  ourselves  from  public 
sight !  Oh  for  the  times  and  the  virtues  of  the  primitive 
Church  !  Why  come  ye  not  again  ?  "^  That  this  sort  of 
scarcely  veiled  concubinage  is,  in  fact,  a  fruitful  source  of 
prostitution  can  scarcely  be  doubted  if,  as  Helsen  asserts, 
the  ordinary  custom  is,  when  one  of  these  priest's  servants 
becomes  pregnant  and  cannot  be  saved  by  a  prudent 
absence,  to  dismiss  her  and  take  another,  perhaps  younger 
and  more  attractive ;  and  that  this  may  occur  repeatedly 
without  the  ecclesiastic  being  subjected  to  any  special 
annoyance  or  supervision — unless,  indeed,  he  is  so  ill- 
advised  as  to  take  pity  on  the  unfortunate  girl  and  refuse 
to  send  her  away.  In  that  case  he  becomes  a  public  con- 
cubinarian,  liable  to  the  canonical  penalties,  with  which  he 
is  sometimes  disciplined.  As  Helsen  indignantly  exclaims, 
"  Would  the  Mahometans  tolerate  such  infamy  in  their 
fakirs   and  dervishes  ?     The  Japanese,    the  Chinese,   the 

1  Helsen,  pp.  74-5. 


348  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Hindus  in  their  bonzes  ?  The  pagans  in  their  Vestals  ? 
Our  ancestors  in  their  Druids  ?  Even  the  Jews  and  Pro- 
testants have  blushed  for  it,  since  they  advise  their  Rabbis 
and  ministers  to  marry  rather  than  thus  to  contaminate 
themselves."^  Helsen  does  not  fail  to  allude  to  the  public 
familiarity  of  these  servants  with  their  employers — the 
familiarity  condemned  in  almost  the  same  words  by  many 
of  the  councils  cited  above — and  it  would  seem  the 
extreme  of  Pyrrhonism  to  doubt  that  almost  universal 
concubinage  is  tolerated,  even  where  on  the  surface  there 
are  no  public  scandals  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
malicious. 

There  would  therefore  seem  no  reason  to  call  in  ques- 
tion the  remarks  of  the  Rev.  William  Chauncy  Langdon, 
whose  long  residence  in  Italy  as  the  agent  of  the  American 
Episcopal  Church  gave  him  ample  opportunity  of  observa- 
tion. "  I  learned  to  regard  a  priest  who  had  lived  all  his 
mature  life  openly  and  faithfully  with  a  woman  to  whom 
of  course  he  had  not  been  married,  by  whom  he  had 
children  now  grown  up,  and  for  all  of  whom  he  was  faith- 
fully providing — with  a  relative  respect  as  one  who  had 
greatly  risen  above  the  morality  of  his  Church  and  of  the 
society  around  him,  and  whose  life  really  might  be  con- 
sidered, on  the  dark  moral  background  behind  him,  a 
source  of  relative  light."  ^ 

All  this  in  fact  may  be  inferred  from  sundry  propositions 
presented  to  the  Vatican  Council  in  1870.  The  Neapolitan 
bishops  asked  for  legislation  to  check  the  frequency  with 
which  priests  entered  into  civil  marriage.  They  argued 
that  the  existing  rule  under  which  such  offenders  cannot 
be  deprived  until  they  have  lain  for  a  year  under  excom- 
munication is  inefficient,  and  that  it  would  be  much  better 
to  suspend  them  at  once  from  office  and  benefice  while 

1  Helsen,  pp.  13,  16,  100. 

2  Keport  to  the  Italian  Committee  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church  (The 
Episcopalian^  Philadelphia,  September  11,  1867). 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  349 

awaiting  the  expiration  of  the  year.  The  French  bishops 
proposed  that  priests  should  be  required  to  exclude  women 
from  their  houses,  or,  if  their  services  were  indispensable, 
at  least  they  should  be  of  undoubted  good  repute  and  not 
less  than  forty  years  of  age,  except  the  near  kindred  per- 
mitted by  the  ancient  canons.  The  German  bishops  also 
desired  this  question  to  be  settled,  and  further  suggested 
that,  to  avert  the  serious  evils  arising  from  the  scandalous 
lives  of  priests,  such  offences  as  notorious  fornication, 
manifest  concubinage,  drunkenness,  and  incorrigible  pro- 
digality he  added  to  the  legitimate  causes  for  deprivation 
of  benefice.^  From  all  this  it  would  appear  that  the  old 
scandals  still  flourish,  and  that  something  more  efficacious 
is  needed  than  the  reformatory  legislation  of  Trent.  The 
managers  of  the  council  were  of  the  same  mind,  and  pre- 
pared a  constitution  De  vita  et  honestate  clericoi^um^  in 
which  Chapter  iii.  provided  that  a  cleric  living  in  concu- 
binage or  keeping  a  suspected  woman  in  his  house  or 
elsewhere  should  be  subjected  to  the  Tridentine  penalties, 
enforcible  without  the  formalities  of  justice  and  solely  on 
the  strength  of  the  facts ;  but  bishops  were  warned  that, 
to  prevent  the  too  facile  aspersion  of  priests  and  the 
reproach  to  themselves  of  inconsiderate  action,  the  evidence 
both  of  the  offence  and  of  the  three  warnings  provided  by 
the  Council  of  Trent  should  be  carefully  preserved,  to  be 
used  in  case  of  appeal.^ 

Slender  as  was  this  provision  for  the  cure  of  imme- 
dicable evils,  it  was  not  adopted.  The  work  for  which 
the  council  was  assembled  was  accomplished,  16  July,  1870, 
when  it  accepted  the  Constitutio  dogmatica  de  Ecclesia 
Christi,  defining  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  and  his  supreme 
jurisdiction  over  the  whole  Church.  Its  further  existence 
was  superfluous,  and  before  another  session  was  held  the 

1  Concil.  Collect.  Lacensis.  T.  VII.  pp.  813,  835,  873,  875. 

2  Ibid.  p.  664. 


350  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Italian  occupation  of  Rome,  September  20,  afforded  an 
ostensible  reason  for  its  dissolution,  which  was  effected 
October  20  by  its  suspension/ 

The  fact  is  that  if  the  priesthood  is  to  be  purified,  some 
more  summary  process  must  be  devised  than  the  existing 
cumbrous  formalities  of  ecclesiastical  procedure.  Few 
reforming  bishops  can  be  expected  to  undergo  the  expenses 
and  delay  incident  to  prosecutions,  if  we  may  judge  from 
the  recent  case  of  Luigi  Bidone,  parish  priest  of  Ohva 
Gessi.  In  1901  he  was  accused  before  the  Bishop  of  Tortona 
of  keeping  as  a  servant,  with  suspicion  of  evil  relations, 
Angela  Chiappano,  a  girl  of  twenty-two,  in  contravention 
of  the  synodal  constitutions.  The  bishop  ordered  her 
dismissal,  but  Bidone  retained  her,  in  spite  of  the  three 
successive  commands,  whereupon  the  bishop  suspended 
him  and  deputed  another  priest  to  replace  him.  Other 
charges  were  brought  against  him  of  dissipating  the 
parochial  temporalities,  and  of  having  received  5071  lire 
for  Masses  never  celebrated:  the  case  was  tried  by  the 
episcopal  court,  but  it  was  not  until  11  February,  1904, 
that  he  was  formally  deposed,  nor  till  17  June,  1905,  that 
this  judgment  was  confirmed  by  the  Congregation  of  the 
Council  of  Trent. ^  The  laws  exist,  as  of  old,  and  can  be 
enforced,  but  more  than  common  tenacity  is  requisite  for 
their  enforcement,  in  face  of  the  labour  involved  and  the 
dread  of  scandal. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  Church  suffers  less 
than  formerly  from  the  solicitation  of  female  penitents  by 
confessors.  Indeed,  the  numerous  utterances  on  the  sub- 
ject during  the  last  half-century  would  perhaps  justify 
the  assumption  that  the  evil  is  increasing  rather  than  that 
the  Church  is  more  alive  to  the  duty  of  its  repression,  for 
in  the  forum  of  conscience  it  is  not  regarded  as  a  more 

1  Concil.  Collect.  Lacensis.  T.  VII.  p.  498. 

2  II  Consulente  ecclesiastico,  Ottobre  1905,  353. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  351 

heinous  sin  than  of  old.  It  is  still  not  a  reserved  case,  its 
commission  does  not  incur  excommunication,  and  absolu- 
tion for  it  can  be  obtained  from  any  confessor  whom  the 
culprit  may  select/  Even  the  disability  to  celebrate  Mass, 
prescribed  in  1745,  was  virtually  nullified  by  a  decision  of 
the  Congregation  of  the  Inquisition,  18  March,  1863,  that 
it  is  not  latce  senteiitice,  but  ferendce — that  is,  that  it  does 
not  operate  of  itself,  but  as  the  result  of  a  conviction  and 
sentence  pronounced.^  As  formerly,  scandal  is  the  one 
thing  dreaded.  All  other  considerations  are  of  minor 
importance,  and  the  subject  is  treated  on  the  basis  of  the 
principle  laid  down  by  the  Glossator ;  "  Nothing  is  to  be 
done  that  creates  scandal  ...  to  avoid  scandal  the  rigour 
of  ecclesiastical  law  often  yields."^  To  this  end,  the  pro- 
ceedings in  all  cases  are  conducted  with  the  most  im- 
pressive secrecy  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  When 
a  priest  obtains  a  delegation  to  receive  a  denunciation 
from  an  accusing  penitent,  which  we  shall  see  is  a  neces- 
sary preliminary,  he  is  sworn  in  presence  of  his  bishop  to 
perform  the  duty  faithfully  and  to  observe  inviolate  secrecy, 
and  this  oath  is  taken  on  the  gospels  and  not  by  merely 
touching  the  breast,  as  is  customary  with  priests.  All 
names  are  scrupulously  suppressed,  and  what  testimony 
is  shown  to  the  accused  is  to  be  so  carefully  disguised  as  not 
to  give  him  an  inkling  as  to  the  witness.  All  papers  are 
to  be  kept  by  the  bishop  in  a  special  cabinet  to  which  even 
his  vicar-general  is  debarred  access,  the  accuser  is  kept  in 

1  II  Consulente  ecclesiastico,  Vol.  IV.  p.  19  (1898). — Berardi,  De  Sollicitatione  et 
Absolutione  Complicis,  p.  129. 

This  latter  work,  of  which  a  second  edition  was  issued  at  Faenza  in  1897,  shows 
the  attention  which  the  subject  is  attracting  in  recent  times,  and  furnishes  a  con- 
temporary view  of  the  light  in  which  it  is  regarded,  with  the  received  practice 
under  late  decisions. 

2  II  Consulente  ecclesiastico,  loc.  cit.  p.  20. 

3  Gloss,  in  Cap.  5  Extra,  Lib.  I.  Tit.  xi. — Quoted  approvingly  by  Berardi,  p.  127 
as  also  Liguori's  dictum,  "Superior  peccata  subditi  saepe  potest  dissimulare  ad 
vitandas  turbas  et  majora  mala,  quae  alioqui  teneretur  punire." — Theol.  Moral.  Lib.  Ii. 
Tract,  iii.  Cap.  2,  Dub.  5,  Art.  2,  n.  52. 


352  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

ignorance  of  the  result,  and  when  the  case  is  ended  it  is 
to  be  buried  in  obUvion/  Under  these  circumstances  it  is 
impossible  even  to  guess  what  may  be  the  frequency  of 
either  the  crime  or  its  detection,  but  that  it  is  kept  in 
mind  as  an  ever-present  possibility  is  suggested  by  the 
recommendation  that  priests  engaged  in  "missions"  or 
revivals  should  always  provide  themselves  with  the  neces- 
sary faculties  to  receive  denunciations,^  and  by  the 
frequent  recurrence,  in  the  councils  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  of  injunctions  that  the  confessions  of  women  shall 
always  be  heard  at  times  and  in  places  open  to  public 
observation.^ 

There  is  the  same  difficulty  as  of  old  in  defining  the 
exact  limits  to  which  the  confessor  may  go  without 
subjecting  himself  to  the  definitions  of  the  bulls  of 
Gregory  XV.  and  Benedict  XIV.  The  licence  allowed 
in  the  confessional  is  necessarily  great,  and  the  discretion 
of  the  confessor  is  a  variable  quantity.  Even  without  evil 
intention  on  his  part,  the  pure-minded  penitent  may  be 
scandalised,  and  indecency,  though  perhaps  not  so  common 
as  in  former  times,  would  still  seem  to  exist.  We  are 
told  that  some  confessors  are  so  habitually  scurrilous  that 
they  forget  themselves  without  seeking  to  corrupt  their 
penitents,  but  the  law  is  not  simply  for  the  punishment 
of  guilt,  but  for  the  prevention  of  scandal.     Yet  impru- 

1  Instruct.  S.  Inquisit.  Roman.  February  20, 1867  (Collect.  Concil.  Lacensis.  ill. 
553_6)._Berardi,  op.  cit.,  pp.  134,  160,  223-4. 

2  Berardi,  p.  190. 

8  Concil.  Baltimor.  I.  ann.  1829,  Deer.  xxv.  (Collect.  Lucens.  III.  30-1.) — C. 
Baltimor.  V.  ann.  1843,  Deer.  ix.  (III.  90.) — C.  Australians.  I.  ann.  1844,  Deer.  xii. 
(III.  1051).— C.  Thurlesens.  ann.  1850,  Deer.  xii.  41  (III.  782).— C.  Rothomagens. 
ann.  1850,  Deer.  xvii.  3  (IV.  530).— C.  Tolosan.  ann.  1850,  Tit.  iii.  cap.  1,  n,  70  (IV. 
1054).— C.  Casseliens.  ann.  1853  Tit.  iii.  (III.  837.)— C.Tuamens.  ann.  1854,  Deer.  viii. 
(III.  860.)— C.  Quebecens.  II.  ann.  1854,  Deer.  ix.  §  7  (III.  639).— C.  Port.  Hispan. 
ann.  1854,  Art.  iv.  n.  1,  2  (III.  1098).— C.  Halifaxiens.  I.  ann.  1857,  Deer.  xiv.  (III. 
745)._C.  Viennens.  ann.  1858,  Tit.  iii.  cap.  7  (V.  169).- C.  Coloniens.  ann.  1860,  Tit.  ii. 
cap.  15  (V.  351).— C.  Pragens.  ann.  1860,  Tit.  iv.  cap.  7 ;  Tit.  v.  cap.  8  (V.  508,  543). 
—Synod.  Ultraject.  ann.  1865,  Tit.  iv.  cap.  8  (V.  830.)— C.  Plenar.  Baltimor.  II.  ann. 
1866,  Append.  X.  (III.  553.) — Concil.  Plenar.  Americee  Latinze,  ann.  1899,  Tit.  v. 
cap.  5,  n.  549  (Romae,  1900,  p.  239). 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  353 

dence  is  so  exceedingly  common  and  inevitable  that,  if 
it  were  subject  to  denunciation,  who  would  venture  to 
hear  the  confessions  of  women  ?  ^  The  discussion  still 
goes  on,  as  it  did  in  the  seventeenth  century ;  there  are 
still  opposing  opinions  of  greater  or  less  laxity,  into  the 
details  of  which  it  is  scarce  worth  while  again  to  enter. 
We  may  content  ourselves  with  the  general  impressions 
derived  from  the  debate  that  the  kind  of  talk  which  seems 
to  be  common  between  the  confessor  and  his  penitent  must 
frequently  lead  to  temptation  difficult  for  average  human 
nature  to  resist ;  that,  amid  the  mass  of  conflicting 
opinions,  the  priest  who  avoids  the  gi'osser  and  more  direct 
forms  of  seduction  has  the  opportunity  of  attaining  his 
object  without  running  much  risk,  and  that  it  is  not  the 
flagitious  character  of  the  act  but  the  disrespect  to  the 
sacrament  which  is  still  the  subject  of  repression.^ 

The  oflence  thus  is  still  technical  and  not  moral,  for 
the  priest  who  learns  the  frailty  of  a  penitent  and  visits 
her  the  next  day  is  not  subject  to  denunciation.^  The 
laxity  of  this  strict  construction  is  seen  in  the  decision  of 
a  case,  6  June,  1898,  in  which  the  laundress  of  a  priest 
was  accustomed  to  confess  to  him.  On  one  occasion  she 
confessed  to  adultery,  when  he  told  her  to  wait  for  him  in 
the  ante-room  of  the  monastery.  There,  after  some  talk 
about  his  clothes,  he  made  indecent  advances,  and  subse- 
quently when  she  attended  Mass  he  would  beckon  to  her 
from  his  confessional  and  make  appointments  to  visit  her 
at  her  house,  finally  taking  her  and  supporting  her  as 
his  mistress.  The  decision  by  the  Congregation  of  the 
Inquisition  was  that  he  was  not  guilty  of  solicitation 
under  the  bulls,  for  although  some  authorities  hold  that  a 
priest  is  guilty  who  makes  use  of  knowledge  gained  in  the 
confessional,  this  cannot  be  accepted  in  practice,  for  the 

1  Berardi,  pp.  28-9,  39-40. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  32-43.  a  Ibid.  p.  147. 

VOL.  II.  Z 


354  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

somewhat  significant  reason  that  it  would  hinder  the  full 
confession  of  such  sins  because  of  its  imposing  on  the 
penitent  the  obligation  of  denouncing  the  confessor  who 
takes  advantage  of  the  knowledge/  Liguori  lays  down 
the  rule  that,  where  there  is  doubt,  the  confessor  is  not  to 
be  denounced ;  there  must  at  least  be  moral  certainty  : 
appearances  may  deceive,  while  on  the  other  hand  solici- 
tation may  be  so  shrewdly  disguised  as  to  render  it 
difficult  of  recognition  or  proof.* 

When  these  preliminary  difficulties  are  solved  by  the 
confessor  to  whom  the  woman  reveals  the  fact  of  her 
having  been  solicited — for  it  is  assumed  that  denunciations 
are  made  only  under  pressure  of  a  refusal  of  absolution  for 
not  denouncing — the  rules  of  procedure  are  not  such  as  to 
facilitate  conviction  and  punishment.  In  1867  the  Con- 
gregation of  the  Inquisition  addressed  all  archbishops, 
bishops,  and  ordinaries,  complaining  that  the  papal 
constitutions  on  the  subject  were  neglected,  and  that 
abuses  had  crept  in,  both  as  to  penitents  denouncing  guilty 
confessors  and  as  to  the  punishment  of  the  latter.  It 
therefore  urged  the  prelates  everywhere  to  greater  vigi- 
lance and  vigour,  and  gave  a  summary  of  the  current 
practice  of  the  Inquisition,  which  affords  us  an  insight  into 
the  methods  deemed  sufficient  for  the  repression  of  this 
persistent  and  perennial  abuse.^  The  success  of  the  Holy 
See  since  the  seventeenth  century  in  making  good  its 
claims  on  the  obedience  of  the  faithful  is  warrant  sufficient 
for  assuming  that  this  utterance  has  been  accepted  as 
authoritative,  and  that  it  has  nowhere  been  treated  with 
the  contempt  shown  by  France  and  Germany  for  the 
decrees  of  Gregory  XV. 

As  formerly,  the  woman  solicited  is  compelled  to  accuse 

1  II  Consulente  ecclesiastico,  III.  373. 

2  S.  Alph.  le  Ligorio,  Theol.  Moral.  Lib.  vi.  Tract,  iv.  n.  702. 

3  Instruct.  S.  Inquisit.  Roman,  20  February,  1867  (Collect.  Concil.  Lacens.  III. 
563). 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  355 

the  culprit,  and  Pius  IX.  in  the  great  bull  Apostolicee  Sedis, 
12  October,  1869,  which  superseded  the  old  bulls  In 
Coena  Domini,  included  among  those  subject  to  excom- 
munication latce  sententice  women  who  neglected  to  do  so 
within  a  month  after  the  commission  of  the  offence.^  It 
is,  however,  apparently  impossible  to  induce  them  to  do 
this,  and  it  is  only  when  they  chance  to  confess  their  sin 
to  some  other  confessor  and  are  refused  absolution  that 
they  are  compelled  to  do  it,  although  the  rule  is  absolute 
that  they  are  not  to  be  interrogated  as  to  consent. 
Strictly  speaking,  the  denunciation  should  be  made  before 
a  notary,  but  it  is  excessively  difficult  to  secure  this,  and 
a  special  faculty  must  be  obtained  from  the  bishop  to 
enable  the  confessor  to  take  it.  When  obtained  he 
forwards  it  to  the  bishop,  keeping  no  copy,  burning  all 
memoranda  and  returning  the  faculty,  so  that  all  trace  of 
the  matter  shall  be  destroyed.  The  denunciation  is  then 
sent  to  the  Roman  Inquisition,  and  its  orders  are  awaited.^ 
Strict  as  are  the  injunctions  to  denounce,  there  are 
various  ways  in  which  they  can  be  eluded.  Dispensations 
reheving  the  penitent  from  the  duty  can  be  obtained  from 
the  bishop,  the  Inquisition,  or  the  Papal  Penitentiary. 
Danger  to  life,  reputation,  or  property,  whether  of  herself 
or  her  near  kindred,  relieves  her  of  the  obligation  ;  even 
close  kinship,  gratitude  for  favours  received,  and  friendship 
serve  as  an  excuse.^  Confessors  who  do  not  admonish 
their  penitents  of  this  duty  are  liable  to  punishment,  but 
they  are  advised  to  abstain  from  initiating  inquiries  about 
the  matter ;  they  are  warned  not  to  be  over-zealous  in 
starting  denunciations  without  close  investigation,  and  are 
told  not  to  admonish  the  penitent  if,  on  the  one  hand,  they 

1  Acta  Pii  PP.  IX.  T.  V.  p.  66. 

2  Berardi,  op.  cit.  pp.  85,  89-94,  224. 

3  Ibid.  pp.  154-7,  164,  175-8. — Consulente  ecclesiastico,  IV.  13-15. 

Schieler,  however  (Theory  and  Practice  of  the  Confessional,  pp.  374-5),  is  much 
stricter  as  to  the  reasons  exonerating  the  penitent  from  denunciation. 


356  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

feel  convinced  that  she  will  not  obey,  and  thus  incur 
mortal  sin,  or,  on  the  other,  if  her  character  is  such  as  to 
cause  apprehension  that  she  may  talk  about  it  and  thus 
create  scandal.  Anything,  in  fact,  which  may  lead  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  affair  is  sufficient  to  prevent  its  prosecu- 
tion/ In  1880  the  Inquisition  issued  further  instructions, 
saying  that  it  often  happened  that  denunciations  contained 
allusions  to  other  solicited  penitents,  who  had  not  been 
examined,  as  they  should  have  been  and  must  be  in  future  ; 
also  that  prosecutions  frequently  failed  because  the 
denunciations  were  not  in  proper  form,  wherefore  it  sent 
a  formula  to  be  followed  in  all  cases.  In  1897  additional 
instructions  were  issued,  relative  to  the  investigations  as 
to  the  character  of  the  accuser  and  accused,  which  were 
necessary  as  a  guide  in  weighing  the  credibility  of  the 
denunciation.^ 

It  is  evident  that  there  is  no  little  difficulty  in  obtaining 
denunciations  and  in  formulating  them  properly,  but  when 
this  is  accomplished  the  culprit  is  still  reasonably  safe,  for 
no  action  is  taken,  except  to  have  him  watched,  until 
three  separate  ones  have  been  transmitted  against  him — a 
thing  which  can  happen  but  rarely.^  When  such  an 
accumulation  occurs,  they  are  duly  investigated,  and  if 
he  is  found  guilty  the  only  punishment  indicated  is  de- 
privation of  the  faculty  of  hearing  confessions,  leaving  to 
the  bishop  the  commutation  of  the  other  penalties  into 
spiritual  exercises.  In  practice,  however,  we  are  told  that 
when  the  offender  is  a  parish  priest  he  is  simply  forbidden 
to  hear  confessions  outside  of  his  parish,  and  is  required 
to  resign  it  within  a  given  time.*     Inadequate  as  these 

1  Berardi,  pp.  180,  182,  189. — Consulente  ecclesiastico,  IV.  13,  14,  16. 

2  Berardi,  pp.  116,  225. 

3  Instruct   S.  Koman.  Inquis.  ubi  sup. 

4  Ibid.— Berardi,  pp.  126,  128. 

Schieler,  however  (op.  cit.  p.  375),  says  nothing  about  episcopal  commutation 
of  the  other  penalties  prescribed  in  the  papal  briefs,  which  are  assumed  to  be 
still  in  force. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  357 

provisions  must  seem  for  an  offence  so  grievous,  they  can 
be  greatly  reduced  by  self-denunciation.  One  who  accuses 
himself  before  any  evidence  has  been  received  against  him 
escapes  with  spiritual  penances  and  the  advice  to  avoid 
confessing  those  whom  he  has  solicited,  and  it  is  the  same 
if  a  single  accusation  has  been  sent  in ;  if  there  are 
several  accusations  against  him  and  he  presents  himself 
and  confesses  before  the  trial  is  ended,  he  obtains  ^a  miti- 
gation of  the  customary  sentence/  It  would  appear  from 
all  this  that  the  active  legislation  on  the  subject  of 
recent  years  is  rather  an  indication  of  the  prevalence  of 
the  trouble  than  of  a  sincere  desire  to  eradicate  it  by 
measures  of  suitable  vigour  and  severity. 

Even  the  long-standing  abuse  of  the  absolution  of  the 
accomplice  is  still  existent.  Various  councils  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  felt  impelled  to  call  attention  to  the  pro- 
hibitions uttered  by  Benedict  XIV.,^  and  the  Inquisition 
of  recent  years  has  found  it  necessary  to  issue  repeated 
decrees  on  the  subject.  An  obscure  decision,  16  May,  1877, 
led  to  the  assumption  that  the  censures  of  the  bull  Sacra- 
mentum  Poenitentias  could  be  eluded  by  the  confessor 
leading  his  accomplice  to  omit  allusion  to  their  mutual 
sin  in  the  confession  to  him  in  which  he  absolved  her — 
either  persuading  her  that  it  was  no  sin,  or  that,  as  it 
was  already  known  to  him,  there  was  no  necessity  of 
mentioning  it.     To  meet  this  the  Inquisition,  19  February, 

1  Instruct.  S.  Roman.  Inquisit.  ubi  sup. — Cf.  Benedict!  PP.  XIV.  De  Synodo 
Dicecesana,  Lib.  VI.  cap.  xi.  n.  8. 

a  Conoil.  Tuamens.  ann.  1817,  Deer.  xvii.  (Coll.  Lacens.  III.  765).— C.  Austra- 
liens.  I.  ann.  1844,  Deer.  xiii.  (III.  1052).— C.  Remens.  ann.  1857,  cap.  vi.  n.  57 
(IV.  211). 

While  it  is  admitted  that,  since  Benedict  XIV.,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  seducer 
over  the  seduced  is  forfeited,  still  it  revives  when  she  is  absolved  of  the  sin  by 
another  priest ;  but  she  should  be  admonished  not  again  to  resort  for  confession 
to  her  accomplice,  which  assumes  that  he  is  undisturbed  in  the  performance  of 
his  sacred  duties,  although  his  guilt  has  been  revealed.  When  some  too  zealous 
dioceses  adopted  a  rule  forbidding  seducers  from  hearing  the  confessions  of  their 
accomplices,  the  Congregation  of  the  Council  of  Trent  emphatically  ordered  it  to  be 
withdrawn. — Schieler,  op.  cit.  pp.  355-6. 


358  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

1896,  decided  that  the  excommunication  could  not  be 
thus  evaded,  as  it  would  virtually  neutralise  the  bull. 
A  decree  of  9  November,  1898,  specified  certain  cases  in 
which  the  delinquent  was  excused  from  personal  appli- 
cation to  the  Papal  Penitentiary  for  absolution,  but  when, 
in  1899,  a  bishop  in  a  foreign  land  asked  whether  this 
applied  to  one  of  his  priests  who  had  confessed  to  absolving 
an  accomplice,  but  who  declared  that  his  duties  and  his 
poverty  precluded  him  from  appearing  before  the  Peniten- 
tiary, the  answer  was  in  the  negative.^  Evidently  in  the 
struggle  with  human  nature  the  Church  is  not  wholly 
successful. 

Perhaps  its  success  might  be  greater  if  it  exerted  its 
powers  unreservedly,  but  such  is  its  dread  of  scandal  that 
rather  than  incur  the  risk  of  publicity  it  prefers  to  shield 
the  criminal.  If  the  punishment  cannot  be  secret,  there 
must  be  no  punishment  and  no  admission  of  priestly 
weakness. 

How  powerfully  and  how  unscrupulously  its  influence 
is  exerted  to  this  end  may  be  judged  from  a  few  examples. 
In  1817,  at  Availles,  in  France,  the  sacristan  complained 
to  the  mayor  that  his  daughter  was  received  every  night 
by  the  cure,  to  the  scandal  of  the  people.  The  mayor 
thus  invited  entered  the  priest's  house  suddenly  one  night, 
and  found  the  girl  in  deshabille,  hidden  in  a  corner.  He 
drew  up  an  official  statement  of  the  facts  and  forwarded  it 
to  the  authorities,  and  the  response  to  this  was  his  summary 
dismissal  from  office  on  the  ground  of  having  violated  the 
domicile  of  the  cure  and  increased  the  scandal.^  A  case 
which  attracted  much  attention  at  the  time  was  that  of 
Antoine  Mingrat,  who  as  priest  of  Saint- Aupe,  near 
Grenoble,  created  scandal  by  his  amours,  when,  in  place 
of  being  punished,  he  was  transferred  to  Saint-Quentin. 

1  Cousulente  ecclesiastico,  I.  78  ;  IV.  296. 

2  Bouvet,  De  la  Confession  et  du  C^libat  des  PrStres,  p.  516  (Paris,  1845). 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  359 

Here  he  was  attracted  by  a  young  married  woman 
named  Marie  G^rin.  An  unsuccessful  attempt  upon 
her  virtue  rendered  it  necessary  to  despatch  her.  He 
choked  her  to  death  in  the  parsonage,  and  dragged  the 
body  three-quarters  of  a  league  to  the  Isere,  where  he 
cut  off  the  legs  and  threw  the  fragments  into  the  river. 
Suspicion  pointing  to  him,  he  was  about  to  be  arrested, 
when  he  escaped  across  the  frontier  and  found  refuge  in 
Savoy.  Protected  by  a  mysterious  influence,  he  was  never 
surrendered,  although  he  was  condemned  to  death  in 
absentia  by  the  court  of  Grenoble,  9  December,  1822,  and 
the  only  result  was  the  persecution  of  the  family  of  his 
victim,  who  had  dared  to  complain.^  Similarly,  in  1877, 
the  Abbe  Debra,  condemned  at  Liege  in  default,  for  no 
fewer  than  thirty-two  offences,  was,  after  proper  seclusion  in 
a  convent,  given  a  parish  in  Luxembourg  by  the  Bishop 
of  Namur.^  In  the  case  of  the  Abbe  Mallet,  which 
occurred  in  1861,  the  Church  was  unable  to  save  the 
culprit  from  punishment,  but  did  what  it  could  to  conceal 
his  crimes  from  the  faithful.  Asa  canon  of  Cambray,  he 
seduced  three  young  Jewish  girls  and  procured  their  con- 
finement in  convents  under  pretext  of  labouring  for  their 
conversion.  One  of  his  victims  lost  her  reason  in  conse- 
quence of  her  sufferings,  and  the  court  of  Douay  condemned 
him  to  six  years  at  hard  labour — a  sentence  which  was 
announced  by  an  orthodox  journal  thus  :  "  M.  le  chanoine 
Mallet  de  Cambrai,  accuse  de  detournement  de  mineurs 
pour  cause  de  proselytisme  religieux,  a  ^te  condamnd  a  six 
ans  de  reclusion  " — where  the  skilful  use  of  the  masculine 
"  mineurs  "  and  the  characterisation  of  his  offence  as  re- 
ligious proselytism  elevate  the  worst  of  criminals  into  a 
martyr  for  the  faith.  ^     It  is  quite  within  the  bounds  of 

1  L'impunite  de  Mingrat,  ou  la  police  de  Charles  X.,  Paris,  1830. 
a  Wahu,  op.  cit.  p.  423. 

3  Sauvestre,  op.  cit.  p.  144.     It  is  by  this  policy  that  the  Church  renders  itself 
responsible  for  the  evil   committed   by  its   members.      No  human  organisation  is 


360  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

probability  that,  as  such  a  martyr,  he  may  since  the 
expiration  of  his  sentence  have  been  enjoying,  in  some 
cure  of  souls,  the  opportunity  of  repeating  his  missionary 
experiments. 

It  is  evident  from  these  various  causes  that  the  criminal 
records  can  give  only  the  barest  suggestion  as  to  the 
extent  of  crimes  thus  committed  in  secret  by  a  class 
shielded  by  influences  so  powerful.  The  records  of  the 
ministere  de  la  justice,  moreover,  are  not  in  France  open 
to  the  public,  and  the  only  mode  of  obtaining  even  an 
approximate  idea  of  the  number  of  prosecutions  in  these 
cases  is  to  gather  them  from  the  journals  in  which  they 
chance  to  appear  as  items  of  news.  An  attempt  to  effect 
this  has  been  made  by  Dr.  Wahu,  and  though  from  the 
nature  of  the  case  necessarily  imperfect,  it  affords  some 
interesting  and  suggestive  statistics.  His  list  extends  from 
the  beginning  of  1861  to  April  1879,  and  is  thus  tabu- 
lated : — 

1861 3  cases. 

1862 2  „ 

1863 1  „ 

1864 .        .  1  „ 

1866 '   .         .        .  2  „ 

1867 3  „ 

1868 3  „ 

1869 3  „ 

1872 10  „ 

1873 6  „ 

1875 5  „ 

1876 1  „ 

1877 16  „ 

1878 35  „ 

1879  (January  to  April)    .        .        .        .  19  „ 

without  its  share  of  the  weak  or  vicious,  and  there  is  no  lack  of  scandals  in  the 
Protestant  denominations ;  but  in  these  there  is  a  wholesome  jealousy  which 
usually  seeks  at  once  to  cast  out  and  punish  the  offender.  Thus  when,  in  July 
1867,  the  Kev.  Mr.  Wendt,  at  an  orphan  institution  near  Philadelphia,  was  dis- 
covered to  be  tampering  with  the  virtue  of  the  children  under  his  charge,  those 
who  were  most  nearly  connected  with  the  management  of  the  asylum  were  the  first 
to  take  steps  for  his  prosecution,  and,  as  soon  as  the  necessary  legal  proceedings 
could  be  had,  he  was  undergoing  a  sentence  of  fifteen  years'  solitary  confinement 
without  a  voice  being  raised  in  palliation  of  his  crime. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  361 

In  all  110  cases,  of  which  nearly  one-half  were  brethren 
connected  with  educational  institutions. 

The  earlier  years  of  this  list  must  be  necessarily 
imperfect,  and,  indeed,  M.  Charles  Sauvestre  has  given 
details  of  nine  cases  occurring  in  schools  in  1861,^  all 
which  have  escaped  Dr.  Wahu,  but,  even  making  allow- 
ance for  the  impossibility  of  hunting  up  all  the  fugitive 
records  of  the  past,  the  increase  during  recent  years  is  not 
to  be  regarded  as  indicating  an  increase  of  immorality.  It 
rather  proves  how  powerful  were  the  forces  protecting  the 
Church  and  repressing  publicity  under  the  Second  Empire. 
The  absence  of  cases  in  1870-1  is  probably  attributable  to 
the  preoccupations  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  and  its 
consequent  troubles.  While  the  presidency  of  M.  Thiers, 
in  1872,  jdelded  10  cases,  the  reactionary  government  of 
Marshal  MacMahon  showed  but  12  cases  in  four  years. 
After  the  fall  of  MacMahon  the  number  rapidly  increases, 
the  first  four  months  of  1879  affording  no  fewer  than  19 
cases.  Whether  since  then  this  rate  of  progression  has 
been  maintained  I  have  no  means  of  knowing,  but  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  breaking  up  of  the  unauthorised 
orders  and  the  increased  vigilance  of  the  authorities,  aided 
by  an  aroused  public  sentiment,  have  led  to  a  decrease  in 
the  dismal  record.  One  deplorable  feature  of  many  of 
these  cases  is  the  large  number  of  victims  frequently 
represented  in  a  single  prosecution,  and  that  the  perpe- 
trator had  often  been  afforded  the  opportunity  of  continu- 
ing his  crimes  in  successive  situations.  Thus,  in  the  affair 
of  the  Abbe  Debra,  at  Liege,  in  1877,  there  were  32 
offences  charged  against  him ;  and,  of  those  occurring  in 
the  single  year  1878,  Fr^re  Marien  was  condemned  for 
no  fewer  than  299,  Frere  M^lisse,  at  Saint-Brice,  for  50, 
Frere  Climene  at  Cande,  Maz^,  and  Martigne-Ferchaud, 
for  25,  and  Frere  Adulphe  at  Guipry,  Saint-Meloir-des- 

1  Op.  cit.  pp.  188-44. 


362  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

Ondes,  and  Pleurtuit,  for  67.  It  would  be  a  libel  on 
human  nature  to  assert  that  this  catalogue  of  sin  does  not 
represent  more  than  an  average  of  wickedness,  and  the 
responsibility  for  the  existence  of  so  shocking  a  condition 
of  morahty  must,  at  least  in  part,  be  attributed  to  the  rule 
of  celibacy. 

Irrespective  of  questions  of  morality,  the  rule  of  celi- 
bacy in  modern  society  is  harmful  to  the  State  in  pro- 
portion as  it  contributes  to  the  aggrandisement  of  those 
who  enforce  it.  A  sacerdotal  caste,  divested  of  the 
natural  ties  of  family  and  of  the  world,  with  interests  in 
many  respects  antagonistic  to  the  communities  in  which 
its  members  reside,  with  aims  which,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  must  be  for  the  temporal  advancement  of  its 
class,  is  apt  to  prove  a  dangerous  element  in  the  body 
politic,  and  the  true  interests  of  religion  as  well  as  of 
humanity  are  almost  as  likely  to  receive  injury  as  benefit 
at  its  hands,  especially  when  it  is  armed  with  the  measure- 
less power  of  confession  and  absolution,  and  is  held  in 
strict  subjection  to  a  hierarchy.  Such  a  caste  would  seem 
to  be  the  inevitable  consequence  of  compulsory  celibacy 
in  an  ecclesiastical  organisation  such  as  that  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  the  hierarchy  based  upon  it  can 
scarce  fail  to  become  the  enemy  of  human  advancement, 
so  long  as  the  priest  continues  to  share  the  imperfections  of 
our  common  nature.  How  little  the  aims  of  that  hierarchy 
have  changed  with  the  lapse  of  ages  may  be  seen  in  the 
pretensions  which  it  still  advances,  as  of  old,  to  subject 
the  temporal  sovereignty  of  princes  and  peoples  to  the 
absolute  domination  of  the  spiritual  power.  The  temper 
of  Innocent  III.  and  Boniface  VIII.  is  still  the  leading  in- 
fluence in  its  policy,  and  the  opportunity  alone  is  wanting 
for  it  to  revive  in  the  twentieth  century  the  all-pervading 
tyranny  which  it  exercised  in  the  thirteenth.      Even  the 


THE  CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY  363 

separation  of  Church  and  State  is  condemned  as  a  heresy, 
and  as  the  State  is  denied  the  privilege  of  defining 
the  Hmits  of  its  own  authority,  and  as  the  right  of  the 
Church  to  use  force  is  asserted,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
set  bounds  to  the  empire  which  is  its  rightful  heritage, 
and  of  which  it  is  deprived  by  the  irreligious  tendencies 
of  the  age.^ 

Yet,  in  spite  of  its  reactionary  efforts,  and  of  its 
antagonism  to  the  progress  which  has  made  the  centuries 
since  the  Reformation  the  most  important  in  the  annals 
of  civilisation,  the  Church  has  still  a  part  to  play,  more  or 
less  beneficent  as  its  rulers  may  be  more  or  less  sagacious. 
Conservatism  has  its  uses,  and  mankind  at  large  has  not 
outgrown  the  necessity  of  the  bridle  as  well  as  of  the  spur. 
There  were  ages  in  which  the  Church  was  the  leader  in 
knowledge  and  enlightenment ;  that  it  has  become  obscu- 
rantist is  due  to  the  use  which  it  made  of  its  leadership  to 
so  organise  its  temporal  and  spiritual  domination  that 
further  development  of  human  intelUgence  could  only  be 
accomplished  through  revolt,  and  it  thus  became  the 
enemy  in  place  of  the  friend  of  advancement.  The  policy 
then  adopted  rendered  a  reactionary  position  inevitable, 
because  in  support  of  its  theocratic  aspirations  it  framed  a 
system  of  dogma  assumed  to  be  of  divine  revelation  and 
therefore  unalterable  as  the  will  of  God.  Entrenched 
behind  this,  it  has,  with  varying  success,  defended  its 
position  for  more  than  three  centuries.  From  the  storms 
of  the  Revolution  it  emerged  with  centralised  Ultra- 
montanism  triumphant  over  the  particularism  known  as 
Gallicanism  and  Jansenism — a  triumph  which  culminated 
in  the  Council  of  the  Vatican.  This  was  too  complete, 
and  since  then  signs  have  not  been  lacking  of  a  growing 
restlessness  which  may  be  provoked  to  schism  or  may  be 
soothed  by  wise  concessions.     The  spirit  of  the  age  is  not 

1  Syllab.  Dec.  1864,  No.  xix.,  xlii.,  lir.,  Iv. 


364  SACERDOTAL  CELIBACY 

propitious  for  relentless  discipline  which  will  tolerate 
nothing  but  bhnd  obedience,  and  the  Church  may  find 
that  only  by  yielding  can  it  preserve  its  unity.  The  lesson 
of  the  sixteenth  century  should  not  be  forgotten,  when 
unwisdom  cost  it  nearly  half  of  its  membership. 


INDEX 


Abbey  lands,  disposition  of,  in  Germany, 
ii.  63-4,  66  ;  England,  ii.  91-2,  130 ; 
Scotland,  ii.  164-5 ;  confiscated  in 
France,  ii.  306-7  ;  Italy,  ii.  337 

Abbo,  St.,  of  Fleury,  inculcates  beauty  of 
purity,  i.  176;  murdered  by  his  monks, 
i.  177 

Abbot  of  Crossed  Friars,  immorality  of, 
ii.  97 

Abbot  of  Langdon,  immorality  of,  ii. 
88 

Abbot  of  Walden,  secret  marriage  of, 
ii.  105 

Abbots,  of  Hungary  in  fifteenth  century, 
ii,  19;  execution  of  English,  ii.  97; 
parliamentary,  ii.  98 

Abelard,  description  of  monastic  life  by, 
i.  319  ;  marriage  of,  i.  324  ;  "  Sic  et 
Non ".  by,  i.  389 ;  speculations  ad- 
dressed to  Heloise  by,  i.  433,  note  ;  on 
abuse  of  confessional,  i.  436,  note 

Abingdon,  abbey  of,  i.  193 

Absalom  of  Scania,  i.  301 

Absolution,  marketable  commodity  in 
Kome,  i.  443;  given  by  "soliciting" 
priests  to  penitents, ii.  272 ;  by  "  solicit- 
ing" priests  forbidden  by  Benedict 
XIV.,  ii.  274;  by  "soliciting"  priests 
forbidden  in  Greek  Church,  ii.  274  ;  by 
guilty  confessors  denounced,  ii.  273 

Abstinence  (sexual)  in  pagan  priesthood, 
i.  42 

Abstinentes,  heresy  of,  i.  20 

Abuse  of  confessional  {see  Confessional) 

Abyssinian  Church,  customs  of,  i.  99 

Accomplice,  immunity  of,  i.  355,  note 

Acephali,  vagabond  monks,  i.  122 

Adalbero  of  Metz  ordains  sons  of  priests, 
i,  178 

Adam  de  la  Halle  on  Alexander  IV.,  i. 
414 

Adamites,  i.  470 

Adam  of  Marisco,  i.  357 

Adela  of  Flanders,  seeks  to  enforce  celi- 
bacy, i.  312  ;  miraculous  cure  of,  ii. 
23,  note 

Adelaide  of  Savoy,  Damiani  asks  inter- 
position of,  i.  239 


Adolph  of  Nassau,  ii.  34,  note 

Adrian  I.  asserts  morality  of  his  clergy, 

i.  153 
Adrian  VI.,  receives  complaint.  Diet  of 

Niirnberg,  ii.  34,  note  ;  reproaches  Diet 

of  Nurnberg,  ii.  49  ;  compares  Luther 

to  Mahomet,  ii.  60 
Adulphe,Frere,  prosecuted  for  67  offences, 

ii.  361-2 
Adultery    by   ecclesiastics,   Council    of 

Mexico  on,  ii.  250 
Adulterous   wives,  of  priests  to  be  put 

away,  i.   27 ;    of  Calvinist  ministers 

ii.  152 
iElfric,  St. ,  of  Canterbury,  pastoral  letter 

of,  i.  199 
iEneas,  Sylvius  {see  Pius  II.) 
Africa,  Church  of,  Siricius  enforces  cell 

bacy  on,  i.  64 ;  celibacy  not  openly 

resisted  in,  i.  74 
African  Church,    celibacy  discussed  in 

Carthage,  i.   74  ;   Donatist  monks  in, 

i.  118,  note 
Agapetse,  scandals    of,    condemned    by 

Council  of  Elvira,  i.   43  ;   Council  of 

Ancyra    in    314,   i.    47  ;     arouse   St. 

Jerome's  indignation,  i.   47-8  ;    Epi- 

phanius  testifies  against,  i.  48  ;  worthy 

attention  Nicene  fathers,  i.  48 
Age,  minimum,  for  vows,  in  early  Church, 

i.  109,  116  ;  in  eighteenth  century,  ii. 

302  ;  for  subdiaconate  and  priesthood, 

ii.  340  ;  canonical,  for  women  resident 

with  priests,  ii.  343 
Agen,  Manichseism  in  iioo,  i.  244 
Agnes,  Empress,   made  regent,  i.    224 ; 

deprived  of  regency,  i.  235 
Agumanes,  Diego  de,  indecency  of,    in 

confessional,  ii.  269 
Agrippa,  Cornelius,  on  the  clergy,  ii.  37 ; 

licences  to  sin,  ii.  55,  note ;  character 

of  Eoman  prelates,  ii.  57,  note 
Aix  la  Chapelle,  Council  of,  in  836,  i.  156 ; 

817,  i.  156,  note 
Alain  Chartier,  Archdeacon  of  Paris,  on 

clerical  morals,  ii.  9 
Alain  de  I'lsle,  "  Universal  Doctor,"  on 

clerical  morals,  i.  396-7 


366 


INDEX 


Alberic,  Cardinal,  and  heretics,  i.  463 

Alberic  of  Marsico,  crimes  of,  i.  176 

Alberic  of  Ostia,  legate  to  England,  i.  341 

Albero  of  Liege  permits  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  295 

Albero  of  Mercke,  heresy  of,  i.  230,  note 

Albero  of  Verdun,  efforts  at  reform  by, 
i.  318 

Albert  II.  (Emperor)  fines  concubinary 
priests,  ii.  12 

Albert  of  Bavaria,  asks  for  clerical  mar- 
riage, ii.  195  ;  presents  request  to 
Pope,  ii.  208  ;  letter  from  Pius  V.  to, 
ii.  223 

Albertof  Brandenburg,becomesLutheran, 
i.  457,  ii.  63  ;  founds  hereditary  duke- 
dom of  Prussia,  i.  457 

Albert,  Primate  of  Germany,  ii.  63,  note 

Albert  of  Hamburg,  exhorts  clergy  to 
continence,  i.  211 ;  measures  of  reform 
by,  i.  221 

Albert  of  Mainz,  addresses  Frederic  of 
Saxony  on  marriage,  ii.  42  ;  imprisons 
married  priest,  ii.  43 

Albert,  Miguel,  and  Mass  of  immoral 
priest,  ii.  245,  note 

Albigenses,  heresy  of,  i.  245  ;  attacked 
by  St.  Bernard,  i.  409  ;  tenets  of,  i. 
459-60 

Alboin  defends  sacerdotal  marriage,  i.  51 

Alby,  heresy  in,  i.  464 

Alcdntara,  Order  of,  i.  454 

Alcobaga,  Abbot  of,  head  of  Order  of 
St.  Michael,  i.  456 

Alcuin  on  disorders  of  Saxon  nunneries, 
i.  190 

Aldebert  of  Le  Mans,  shameless  licen- 
tiousness of,  i,  318 

Aldhelm,  St.,  on  errors  of  faith  and  disci- 
pline, i.  188 

Alemanni,  unchastity  of,  i,  131,  note 

Alexander  II.,  estimate  of  St.  Peter 
Damiani,  i.  217  ;  addresses  Milanese 
on  heresies,  i.  253 ;  suppresses  the 
Liber  Gomorrhianus,  i.  219,  note  ;  en- 
forces reform,  i.  237  ;  is  discouraged, 
i.  241 ;  protects  the  Jews,  i.  242  ; 
authorises  war  against  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  254  ;  sends  legation  to  Milan, 
i.  256 ;  efforts  in  Spain  by,  i.  371  : 
sends  letter  to  William  the  Conqueror, 
i.  329  ;  death  of,  i.  242 ;  enforcement 
of  celibacy  attributed  to,  i.  266 

Alexander  III.,  on  married  canons,  i. 
326 ;  ceaselessly  attempts  reform  in 
England,  i.  342  ;  strives  with  Bar- 
barossa,  i.  393  ;  on  dissolution  of  mar- 
riage, i.  396  ;  thinks  of  introducing 
discipline  of  Greek  Church,  i.  402  ;  on 
hereditary  transmission  of  benefices, 
ii.  174,  note 

Alexander IV., on  licentious  ecclesiastics, 
i.  413  ;  on  corruption  of  laity  by 
priests,  i.  436 


Alexander  VI.,  character  of,  i.  428  ; 
grants  marriage  to  Portuguese  mili- 
tary Orders,  i.  455 

Alexander  VII.,  on  love-letters  in  confes- 
sion, ii.  267  ;  on  denunciation  of  a  con- 
fessor, ii.  273 

Alfonso  the  Wise  admits  clerical  celi- 
bacy not  apostolic,  i.  14 

Alfonso  VI.  (Castile)  asks  for  a  legate, 
i.  372 

Alfonso  VIII.,  expedition  of ,  to  Portugal, 
i.  374  ;  becomes  a  canon  and  marries 
following  year,  i.  375-6 

Alfonso  I.  (Portugal)  founds  Orders  of 
St.  Avis  and  St.  Michael,  i.  455,  456 

Alfred  on  chastity  of  nuns,  i.  191 

Algiers,  court  of,  decides  on  civil  mar- 
riage of  priests,  ii.  324 

Alphonso  Liguori,  St.,  on  clerical  cor- 
ruption, ii.  245,  note 

Altmann  of  Passau,  enthusiastic  papalist, 
i.  271  ;  renowned  for  piety,  i.  273  ; 
expelled  by  Henry  IV.  i.  273  ;  returns 
to  diocese,  i.  273 

Alva,  Duke  of,  success  of,  ii.  73  ;  issues 
commands  to  prelates  at  Utrecht,  ii. 
230 

Alvarez  Pelayo  on  Spanish  clergy,  i. 
412 

Amalfi  {see  Melfi) 

Amandus  of  Maestricht,  i.  141,  note 

Amandus,  Bishop,  papal  legate  to  Spain, 
i.  371 

Amaury  of  Bene,  i.  469 

Ambrogio  Caterino  disputes  with  Lu- 
ther, ii.  41 

Ambrose,  St.,  admits  ancient  custom  of 
non  -  celibacy,  i.  66  ;  synod  under 
auspices  of,  condemns  Jovinian,  i,  69  ; 
general  of  Order  of  Camaldoli,  ii.  8 ; 
succeeds  in  labours  for  celibacy,  i.  81 

Ambrose,  St. ,  of  Camaldoli  and  amorous 
abbot,  ii.  8 

Amedeus  of  Savoy,  ii.  27 

America  [{see  United  States,  Canada, 
and  Spanish  Colonies) 

Ammonius  Saccas  and  Neo-Platonic 
philosophy,  i.  28 

Ammonius,  St.,  triumphs  over  the  flesh, 
i.  220,  note 

Amort,  Dr.,  on  morals  in  eighteenth 
century,  ii.  266 

Anabaptists,  ii.  68 

Anaclet  (anti-pope)  enforces  celibacy, 
i.  294 

Anastasius  (Emperor),  insurrection 
against,  i.  118 

Anathema  for  disbelief  in  celibacy, 
ii.  204 

Ancarono,  opinion  of,  upon  concubines 
of  priests,  i.  421 

Ancyra,  Council  of,  in  314,  allows  mar- 
riage of  priests,  i.  47 ;  denounces 
agapetae,  i.  47 


INDEX 


367 


Andrea   of    Vallombrosa    on    Milanese 

clergy,  i.  247,  note 
Andreas  of  Lunden  on  concubines,!.  231, 

note 
Andrew,  Bishop  of  Tarentum,  case  of, 

i.  138,  note 
Angelric,    priest    of    Vasnaw,    publicly 

married,  i.  162 
Angers,    demoralisation    of    clergy    in, 

ii.  8 
Anglican  bishops,  marriage  of,  ii.  146 
Anglican  clergy,  restrictions  on  marriage 
of,    ii.    122  ;    flexibility  of    faith  of, 
ii.  140  ;  evil  influence  of  marriage  of, 
ii.  145-6  ;    position  of,  according  to 
Macaulay,  ii.  149 
Anglican  Church,  the,  ii.  77-149  ;  Queen 

Elizabeth,  estimate  of  the,  ii.  141 
Anglican    ritual,    marriage    service  in, 

ii.  122 
Anglo-Irish  Church,  disorders  of,  i.  361 
Anglo-Saxon  Church,  disorders  of,  i.  168  ; 

celibacy  enjoined  in,  i.  39 
Angouleme,   amour  of  Archdeacon    of, 

i.  325 
Anjou,  Council  of,  in  453,  i.  82 
Ann  of  Cleves,  marriage  of,  ii.  115 
Annates,  increase  of,  by  Popes,  ii.  33 ; 

withdrawn  by  Henry  VIII.,  ii.  85 
Anse,  Council  of,  in  990,  i.  181 
Anselm,    St.,    on  sacraments  of  sinful 
priests,  i,  229,  note ;  reforms  by,  i.  331, 
332  ;  exiled,  i.  334  ;  death  of,  i.  337 
Anselmo  di  Badagio,  afterwards  Pope 
Alexander    II.,    i.    235,  246 ;   sent  to 
Milan,  i.  251  [set  Alexander  II.) 
Anthony,  Bishop  of  Ephesus,  crimes  of, 

1.90 
Anthony,  Archbishop  of  Prague,  ii.  232, 

235 
Antony,  St.,  retires  to  the  desert,  i.  105 ; 

has  many  followers,  i.  117 
Antichrist,  anticipation  of,  ii.  9 
Antidicomarianitarians,  heresy  of,  i.  68 
Antoin,  married  canons  of,  i.  326 
Antonelli,  Cardinal,  imprisons   Panzini, 

ii.  326 
Antwerp,  synod  of,  in  16 10,  ii.  236 
Apel,  John,  punished  for  marrying,  ii.  49 
Apocalypsis  Golise,  i.  345 
Apollinaris  of  Rhodez,  i.  132,  note 
Apollo,   compulsory  celibacy  of  priest- 
esses of,  i.  43 
Apostolic  canons  on  digami,  i.  24 ;  permit 

priestly  marriage,  i.  40,  44 
Apostolic  constitutions  on  digami,  i.  24  ; 
allow  retention  of  wives  married  before 
ordination,  i.  28  ;  regarding  widows, 
ii.27 
Apostolici,  heresy  of,  i.  105,  note 
Apologie  du  Celibat  Chretien,  ii.  299 
Appeals  to  Rome,  immunity  caused  by, 
i.  158-9  ;  effect  of,  i.  398 ;  forbidden 
by  Alexander  IV.,  i.  414  ;  forbidden  in 


cases    of    immorality  by  Council   of 
Trent,  ii.  206 
Ap    Rice     visits    monastic    houses     in 

England,  ii.  87,  105 
Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  admits  that  Christ 
did  not  enforce  celibacy,  i.  13  ;  on  sac- 
raments of  sinful  priests,  i.  229,  note  ; 
on  vows,  i.  396,  note 
Arab  monachism,  nature  of,  i.  46,  note 
Arabic  version  of  Nicene  canons,  i.  Ill 
Aranda,  Council  of,  in,  1473  ii.  17 
Arbuckle,  Friar,  disputes  with  Knox,  ii. 

167 
Archembald  of   Sens,  evil  example   of, 

i.  175 
Archives,  Spanish,  researches  in,  ii.  249, 

note  ;  recent  access  to,  ii.  283 
Arechis  of  Beneventum,  edict  of,  i.  143 
Aretino,  abuses  in  Church  of,  i.  168 
Arfastus  of  Thetford,  i.  329 
Arialdo,  St.,  candidate  for  archbishopric, 
Milan,  i.  246  ;  accompanies  Erlembaldo 
to  Rome,   i.  254  ;  is  excommunicated, 
i.  250  ;  procures  excommunication  of 
Archbishop  Guido,  i.  255  ;  put  to  death 
by  satellites  of  Guido,  i.  256  ;  miracles 
at  tomb  of,  i.  256 
Arianism,  celibacy  under,  i.  135 
Arith,  William,  on  abuses,  ii.  155, 
Aries,  Council  of,  in  314,  i.  43,  note  ;  in 

443,  i.  82 
Armagh,  hereditary  Archbishops  of,  i. 

361 
Armagnac,  Cardinal  of,  Pius  V.    urges 

reforms  on,  ii.  241 
Armenia,  Council  of,  in  1362,  i.  96, note; 

hereditary  priesthood  in,  i.  96 
Arnaldo    de  Peralta  attempts    reforms, 

i.  379 
Arnold  of  Brescia  drives  Eugenius  III. 

from  Rome,  i.  388 
Arnolfo,  a  reformer,  fate  of,  i.  424 
Arran,    Regent,    favours    Reformation, 

ii.  158  ;  power  wrested  from,  ii.  162 
Artemis,  celibate  priestesses  for,  i.  43 
Arthur  of  Brittany,  a  canon  of  Tours, 

i.  376,  note 
Artices,  Thirty-nine,  clerical  marriage  in, 

ii.  140 
Articles,  Forty-two,  clerical  marriage  in, 

ii.  121 
Articles,  the  Six,  enacted  by  Parliament, 
ii.  Ill  ;  heretics  burned  under,  ii.  97, 
note ;  modification  of,  ii.   115 ;  repeal 
of,  ii.  117  ;  popular  call  for  restoration 
of,   ii.   120  ;    virtually  revived  under 
Mary,  ii.    137  ;  repealed  under  Eliza- 
beth, ii.  137 
Arundel  of  Canterbury  on  Lollards,  i.  476 
Asceticism,  foreign  to  Hebrew  tradition, 
i.    4  ;   of  early   Christians,  i.   17  ;   of 
heretical  sects,  i.  20  ;   stimulated  by 
Buddhism,   i.   22 ;  growing  tendency 
towards,  i.  22  ;  Neo-Platonism  borrows 


368 


INDEX 


from,  i.  28  ;  is  influenced  by  Mani- 
chseism,  i.  34  ;  after  combat,  Church 
virtually  assents  to,  i.  36  ;  triumph  of, 
is  not  undisturbed,  i.  39-40  ;  of  pagans 
of  the  Empire,  i.  42 ;  furthered  by 
prohibition  of  women  as  ministers,  i. 
56;  demands  artificial  purity,  i.  57  ;  not 
yet  an  article  of  faith  and  discipline, 
i.  57  ;  Bonosus,  Jovinian,  and  Vigilan- 
tius,  leaders  against,  i.  67  ;  voluntary, 
in  fourth  century,  i.  53  ;  becomes  obli- 
gatory, i.  59  ;  voluntary  in  the  East,  i. 
88-9  ;  not  adopted  in  Armenia,  i.  96  ; 
fanciful  views  regarding,  i.  269,  note  ; 
gains  adherents  among  laity,  i.  287  ; 
in  Irish  Church,  i.  184,  360  ;  virtually 
ignored  in  Spain  in  twelfth  cen- 
tury, i.  376  ;  in  middle  ages,  i.  431  ; 
rigid,  of  monk  of  Vallis  Dei,  i.  448  ;  of 
military  Orders,  i.  451,  454 ;  of  Albi- 
genses,  i.  463  ;  of  Petrobrusians,  i.  463; 
opposed  by  Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit, 
i.  470  ;  of  Wickcliffe,  i.  475  ;  of  Hussites, 
i.  479  ;  Clement  VII.  on  Lutheran  stig- 
matising of,  ii.  151  ;  Hosius,  Bishop  of 
Ermeland,  on,  ii.  192 

Ashera,  worship  of,  i.  4 

Assembly,  National,  secularises  Church 
property,  ii.  306-7  ;  legalises  clerical 
marriage,  ii.  309 

Assermentes,  ii.  308 

Assideans,  i.  8 

Astorga,  Bishop  of,  on  Tridentine  canons, 
ii.  207 

Astrolabius,  son  of  Abelard,  1.  324 

Athanasius,  St.,  testifies  to  freedom  iof 
priests  to  marry,  i.  52-3 

Athenagoras,  references  by,  to  chastity 
and  marriage,  i.  19  ;  on  second  mar- 
riage, i.  23  ;  on  asceticism,  i.  113 

Athravas,  hereditary  transmission  by, 
i.  6 

Atto  of  Vercelli,  on  female  ministration, 
i.  57  ;  on  marriage  of  priests,  i.  167 

Attys,  myth  of,  i.  42 

Auditors,  Manichsean,  i.  37 

Augsburg,  Council  of  (tenth  century),  i. 
48,  note ;  in  952,  i.  171  ;  Diet  of,  in 
1530,  ii.  64  ;  "  Confession  "  of,  ii.  65  ; 
synod  of,  in  1548,  ii.  187  ;  Diet  of 
adopts  code  of  reformation,  ii.  186 

Augsburg  formula  of  reformation,  ii.  188; 
formula  published,  ii.  191 ;  confession 
of,  examined  by  Cochlseus,  ii.  210,  note 

Augustin  of  Canterbury  and  celibacy,  i. 
185-6 

Augustin,  St.,  special  pleading  of,  on 
Jewish  priesthood,  i.  5,  note ;  on  mar- 
riage, i.  38  ;  promotes  asceticism,  i.  75  ; 
succeeds  in  labours  for  celibacy,  i.  81 ; 
describes  morals  of  wandering  monks,i. 
112;  says  that  marriage  of  nuns  is 
binding,  i.  114  ;  on  danger  arising  from 
female  residence,  i.  157,  note 


Augustin,  rule  of,  adopted  by  military 

Orders,  i.  451 
Augustinians,  of  Gloucester,  suppression 

of,  ii.  96 ;  Martin  Luther  belongs  to 

Order  of,   ii.  43,  44  ;    of  Wittenberg 

throw  open  their  doors,  ii.  44  ;  enfran- 
chise themselves  at  Nurnberg,  ii.  51 
Aunts,  residence  of , forbidden  for  priests, 

i.  156 
Aurelian,  St.,  of  Aries,  rule  of,  i.  125 
Aurelius,  St.,  advocates  celibacy,  i.  74  ; 

proposes     canon     ordering     married 

priests  to  leave  wives,  i.  75 
Auricular  confession,  commencement  of, 

ii.  252,  note 
Ausch,  Congrhs  fraternel  of,  in  1793,  ii* 

312 
Austin  Friars  of  Gloucester  suppressed, 

ii.  96 
Austria,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i. 

300  ;  "  Old  Catholics  "  in,  ii.  329  ;  civil 

marriage  in,  ii.  330 
Autun,  Prince  Talleyrand  Bishop  of,  ii. 

317  ;  marries,  ii.  317 
Auvergne,  Council  of,  in  535,  i.  84,  note 
Auxerre,  Council  of,  in  578,  i.  84,  note  ; 

persecution  of  celibates  in,  ii.  312 
Availles,  case  occurring  at,  in  181 7,  ii.  358 
Avellana,  monks  of,  i.  217 
Avesbury,  nunnery  of,  shamelessness  of 

abbess  of,  i.  343 
D'Avesnes,  case  of,  i.  399-400 
Avignon,  residence  of  Popes  in,  i.  425  ; 

scandalous  morals  of,  i.  425 ;  Council 

of,  in,  1594,  ii.  241 
Avila,  Pedro  de,  ii.  214  ;  envoy  of  Philip 

II.  to  Pius  IV.,  ii.  216-17 
Avis,  Order  of,  i.  455 
Avranche,  Council  of,  in  1172,  i.  394 
Ayenbite  of  Inwyt,  i.  434,  note 

Babeus  grants  ecclesiastical  marriage, 

i.  98-9 
Babueus,  Patriarch  of  Seleucia,  excom- 
municates Barsuma,  i.  98 
Bachelors  ineligible  for  episcopate,  1.  27, 

note 
Badegisilus  of  Le  Mans,  i.  132,  Tiote 
Baden,  priests  of,  ^petition  for  leave  to 

marry,  ii.  325 
Baithusin,  hereditary  priesthood  of,  i.  5 
Baldric  of  Dol,  i.  312 
Bale,  Bishop    of   Ossory,   controversial 

writing  of,  ii.  118 
Bale,  Council  of,   in  1432,  i.   477,  note  ; 

Hussites  reconciled  at,   i.    477,  note  ; 

clerical  marriage  suggested  at,  ii.  26, 

canons  of,  affirmed  in  Scotland,  ii.  159 
Balfour,  Andrew,  ii.  157 
Balsamon  on  legislation  of  Greek  Church, 

i.  93,  nx)te 
Balthazar  Cossa,  afterwards  John  XXIII., 

i.  426 
Balthazar  Sturmius,  married  monk,  ii.  45 


INDEX 


369 


Baltimore,  Council  of,  in  1829, 11.  352 
Bamberg,  troubles  of,  in   1431,  11.   11  ; 

morals  of    clergy  in    1505  in,  11.  58, 

note 
Bandello,  Bishop,  on  clerical  immorality 

in  Italy,  11.  57 
Bangor,  morals  of  clergy  in.  ii.  105-6 
Baptism  by  immoral  priests,  1.  187,  437  ; 

repetition  of,  refused  by  Ecgberht,  1. 

187 
Baptisma  igneum,  11.  68 
Barba,  Canon  Miguel,  superintendent  of 

convents,  11.  286 
Barbarians,  the,  and  the  Church,  1.  130- 

40  ;  superior  morality  of,  1.  86 
Barbarossa,  strife  of,  with  Alexander  III., 

I.  393  ;  not  allowed  to  enter  Fulda,  11. 
23,  note 

Bardsey,  Culdees  of,  1.  367,  note 
Bari,  military  Bishop  of,  1.  209 
Baronius  on  Gregory  of  Nazlanzum,  1. 53, 

note 
Barrios,  Bishop  of  Santafe,  regulations  of, 

II.  246 

Barry,   Mr.,    researches   of,   in  Spanish 

archives,  ii.  249,  note 
Barsuma,  Metropolitan  of  Nislbi,  1.  98 
Bartelot,  John,  on  bribes  by  Abbot  of 

Crossed  Friars,  11.  97,  note 
Bartholomew    of    Bracara  demands  re- 
forms, 11.  198 
Barzi,  Vincenzo,  has  light  punishment 

for  solicitation,  11.  282 
Basil,  St.,  strict  enforcement  of  canon  by, 

i.  88,  note 
Basilica  of  Leo  the  Philosopher,  quoted 

by  Photius,  1.  93 
Basilldes,  heresy  of,  1.  21 
Basinus  of  Treves,  1.  145 
Bastardv  Increased  by  enforced  celibacy, 

11.  347 
Bathing,     promiscuous,      rebuked      by 

Cyprian,  1.  31 
Baumgartner,  August,  speaks  at  Council 

of  Trent,  11.  178,  221 
Bavaria,  marriage  of  nuns  forbidden  in 

772,  1.  153,  7iote ;  demand  for  clerical 

marriage  in,  11.  75,  194-6  ;    rising  in, 

to  demand  priestly  marriage  and  cup 

for  laity,  ii.  201,  note  ;  "  Old  Catholic  " 

movement  in,  ii.  329 
Beards,  clergy  insist  on  wearing,  11.  231 
Beatoun,   Cardinal,    immorality   of,    11. 

157-8 
Beauvais,   Massleu,  Bishop  of,  publicly 

married,  ii.  310 
Bede,  the  Venerable,  on  Aaron's  linen 

breeches,    1.    63,    note ;     praises    St. 

Columba's  disciples,  1.  185 
Beggars'  Petition,  the,  ii.  90 
Beggars,     legislation     against,     under 

Henry  VIIL,  11.  94 
Begghards  In  Germany,  i.  469;   errors 

of,  i.  471,  note 

VOL.  II. 


Beguines,  brotherhood  of,  i.  469 

Belgium,  Mgr.  Sterckx,  Archbishop  of 
Mechlin,  addressed  on  morals  in,  11. 
346 

Bellarmine,  Cardinal,  on  story  of  Paph- 
nutlus,  1.  51  ;  far-fetched  logic  of,  on 
celibacy,  11.  297 

Beltis,  Babylonian,  1.  4 

Benchor,  monastery  of,  1.  860,  note 

Benedict  VIII.  enforces  celibacy,  i. 
206 

Benedict  IX.,  scandalous  life  of,  i.  208 ; 
driven  out  of  Eome,  1.  214  ;  returns, 
and  sells  papal  dignity,  1.  214  ;  re- 
instated as  Pope,  1.  218 

Benedict  XIII.  canonises  St.  Torlbio  of 
Peru,  ii.  247 

Benedict  XIV.,  bull  on  "solicitation" 
by,  11.  267,  274  ;  denounces  inquiry  of 
name  of  partner  in  guilt,  11.  276  ;  on 
civil  marriage,  ii.  330 

Benedict  of  Camln  on  clerical  morals, 
11.  19 

Benedict  the  Levite  on  residence  of 
female  relatives,  1.  157,  note 

Benedict,  St.,  of  Nursia,  1. 122,  note,  123  ; 
rule  promulgated  by,  1.  124-5 ;  be- 
comes universal,  1.  125  ;  supplemented 
by  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  1.  154 ; 
adopted  by  military  orders,  1.  451 

Benedictine  Order,  saints  in  the,  1.  126  ; 
contentions  of,  with  Franciscans,  1. 
415  ;  peaceful  arts  owe  preservation 
to,  1.  445 

Benefices  held,  by  tenure  of  chastity,  i. 
382  ;  bestowal  of,  on  servants,  11. 173  ; 
hereditary  (see  Hereditary  transmis- 
sion) 

Benefit  of  clergy  extended  to  concubines 
of  priests,  i.  421 

Benevento,  "Madame  Grand"  becomes 
Princess  of,  ii.  318-19 

Benzo,  Bishop,  account  of  Hildebrand  by, 
1.,  231,  note  ;  use  of  term  *'  Paterlni  " 
by,  1.  249,  note;  on  Nicolltlsm,  i. 
284,  note 

Berardi,  on  confessional,  11.  267,  note, 
351,  note;  on  laxity  in  Liguori,  ii. 
268,  note 

Berengaria  of  Barcelona,  1.  376 

Berenger  of  Tours,  on  priestly  marriage, 
1.  307 

Bernald  of  Constance  disputes  on  celi- 
bacy, 1.  50- 1 ;  disbelieves  story  of 
Paphnutius,  1.  51 

Bernard,  St.,  reforms  by,  i.  319  ;  miracle 
wrought  by,  1.  321-2 ;  on  barbarism 
of  Ireland,  1.  361,  note ;  hymn  by,  on 
St.  Malachi,  1.  362,  note ;  on  dissolu- 
tion of  priestly  marriage,  1.  389  ;  on 
the  Albigenses,  i.  409 ;  on  Petrobu- 
slans,  1.  463  ;  on  licentiousness  of 
Kome,  i.  430;  on  revival  of  Manl- 
cheeism,  1.  409 

2  A 


370 


INDEX 


Bernard  of  Font  Cauld  on  Waldenses, 
i.  468 

Bernard  of  Tiron  preaches  reform,  i. 
311 

Bernhardi,  Bartholomew,  pastor,  mar- 
riage of,  ii.  42 

Bernhardus  Baptisatas,  ii.  4 

Beroalde  de  Verville,  ii.  241 

Bertolf,  Duke  of  Carinthia,  has  menacing 
letter  from  Pope  Gregory,  i.  277 

Bertrand,  St.,  of  Comminges,  miracle  of, 
i.  325 

Berytus,  synod  of,  i.  86 

Besangon,  synod  of,  in  1689,  ii.  274 

Beth  Sopherim  uphold  doctrine  of  future 
life,  i.  8 

Beverege,  John,  burnt,  ii.  3  66 

Beza,  Theodore,  on  Anglican  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  139,  note 

Beze,  charter  to  monastery  of,  i.  320 

Bhagavad-gita  and  Christianity,  i.  99, 
note 

Bhikshus  and  Bhikshunis  (Buddhist),  i. 
101 

Bidone,  Luigi,  priest  of  Oliva  Gessi,  case 
of,  ii.  350 

Bigamy  of  priests  in  tenth  century,  i. 
194  ;  in  eleventh  century,  i.  200  ;  in 
twelfth  century,  i.  295  ;  caused  by 
celibacy,  i.  338 

Bigorre,  legalised  concubinage  in,  i.  231, 
7iote 

Bilio,  Cardinal,  author  of  the  Syllabus, 
ii.  328 

Bird,  Bishop  of  Chester,  repudiates  wife, 
ii.  126,  note 

Bisantio  of  Bari,  i.  209 

Bishops,  marriage  of  {see  Marriage) 

Bishop  of  Le  Mans  son  of  priest,  i.  241 

Bishops,  to  be  husband  of  one  wife,  i. 
26  ;  number  of  digamous,  i.  26,  183  ; 
retain  wives,  in  Coptic  Church,  i.  100  ; 
must  have  witnesses  to  purity  of  living, 
i.  147  ;  nominated  by  Merovingians,  i. 
132  ;  immoral  character  of  many,  i.  133  ; 
to  provide  security  for  diocesan  pro- 
perty, i.  137  ;  increase  of  power  for,  i. 
162  ;  military,  i.  175,  note  ;  debate  in 
assembly  of  German,  i.  178  ;  warlike 
character  of,  in  tenth  century,  i.  175, 
note ;  in  eleventh  century,  i.  209  ; 
openly  married  in  Kome  itself,  i.  210  ; 
Damiani  declaims  against  depravity 
of,  i.  233 ;  disaffected  at  synod  of 
Pavia,  i.  259  ;  Scandinavian,  take  con- 
cubines to  visitations,  ii.  2 ;  ordered 
to  eject  concubines  or  lose  prefer- 
ment, ii.  6 ;  ordered  by  Henry  VIII. 
to  arrest  married  priests,  ii.  107  ;  de- 
prived under  Edward  VI.  and  Mary, 
ii.  126 ;  under  Elizabeth,  ii.  126 ; 
French,  ordered  not  to  interfere  with 
priests'  marriages,  ii.  314 
Bishoprics,  hereditary  in  Brittany,  i.  312 ; 


in  Ireland,  i.  361 ;  created  from  English 
monasteries,  ii.  99-100 

Blacater,  Bishop,  persecutes  Lollards, 
ii.  155 

Blanca,  Sor  Antonio,  illicit  relations  in 
confessional,  ii.  286 

Bias  Ortiz,  Vicar  General  of  Toledo,  tries 
immoral  priest,  ii.  254 

Blood-letting  of  monks,  i.  156 

Boccaccio,  plain  speaking  of,  i.  432 

Bodonus  on  "  intention  "  in  confessional 
questions,  ii.  267 

Bohemia,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in, 
i.  293-4;  Calixtins  in,  i.  480;  Maxi- 
milian of,  ii.  199,  210,  211 ;  communion 
in  both  kinds  for,  ii.  212 

Bois  le  Due,  synod  of,  in  16 12,  ii.  237 

Boisset,  Father,  appeals  to  civil  au- 
thorities for  marriage,  ii.  319 

Bologna,  Balthazar  Cossa  legate  in, 
i.  427 

Bonafede,  Niccol5,  Bishop  of  Chiusi, 
ii.  15  " 

Bonaventura,  on  absolution,  i.  431,  note  ; 
on  abuse  of  confessional,  i.  436,  note ; 
quoted  by  Boussard,  ii.  27-8 ;  on 
priests  and  female  penitents,  ii.  253 

Boniface  of  Canterbury,  i.  353 

Boniface  of  Lausanne,  i.  423 

Boniface,  St.,  asceticism  of,  i.  142 ;  as- 
sists Carloman  to  reform  morals,  i.  144 ; 
relations  with  Gervilius,  i.  146  ;  admits 
universal  licentiousness,  i.  146 ;  ad- 
vised by  Pope  Zachary  to  leave  Milo 
to  divine  vengeance,  i.  145 ;  reforms 
Frankish  clergy,  i.  147 ;  falls  under 
sword  of  Frisians,  i.  150 ;  appeal  of,  to 
Cuthbert  of  Canterbury,  i.  188 

Bonizo  deposed  and  martyred,  i.  263 

Bonn,  "  Old  Catholic  "  synod  of,  in  1878, 
ii.  329 

Bonner,  Bishop,  deprives  married  priests, 
ii.  125,  note  ;  visitation  of  London  by, 
ii.  126  ;  scandals  concerning,  ii.  135 

Bonosiacs,  i.  67 

Bonosus  opposed  to  ascetic  spirit,  i.  67  ; 
denounced  by  Siricius,  i.  67  ;  and  fol- 
lowers, by  Council  of  Capua,  i.  67-8 ; 
followers  of,  referred  to  in  Penitential 
St.  Columban,  i.  68 

Book  of  Discipline,  Knox,  ii.  164 

Books  of  canon  law  burned  by  Luther, 
ii.  41 

Bora,  Catharine  von,  escapes  from  con- 
vent of  Nimptschen,  ii.  50 ;  marries 
Luther,  ii.  51 

Bordeaux,  Council  of,  in  1624,  ii.  240 

Borgia,  Eoderic,  character  of,  i.  428 

Borromeo,  St.  Charles  of,  ii.  227 

Bosnia,  heretics  of,  i.  462,  note 

Bossaert  d'Avesnes,  case  of,  i.  398-9 

Bossu  d' Arras,  Le,   on  Alexander  IV. 
i.  414 

Bossuet,  probable  marriage  of,  ii.  298 


INDEX 


371 


Botoa,  monastery  of,  i.  374 
Bouhier  de  I'Ecluse,  ii.  323,  note 
Bourbon,  Cardinal  of,  ii.  241 
Bourges,  Council  of,  in  1031,  i.  207  ;  in 

1528,  ii,  173;  in  1800,  ii.  315;  Torne, 

Bishop  of,  publicly  married,  ii.  310 
Bourne,  Sir  John,  complains  of  dean  and 

chapter,  Worcester,  ii.  142  ;   quarrels 

with  Dr.  Sandys,  ii.  148 
Boussard,   Geoffroi,  dissertation  of,    on 

priestly  continence,  i.  15,  ii.  27 
Boyer  on  "droit  de  marquette,"  i.  441, 

note 
Bracton  on  position  of  concubines,  i.  231, 

note 
Bracara,  Archbishop  of,  ii.  198 
Braga,  Councils  of,  i.  84,  tiote 
Brahmanism,  asceticism  of,  i.  7 
Branda,  Cardinal,  reforms  of,  ii.  7 
Brantome,   on  shameless  papal  court,  i. 

426  ;  on  Cardinal  de  Chatillon,  ii.  153, 

note  ;    on  morals  under    Catherine  de 

Medicis,  ii.  241 
Brazil,  suppression  of  monasteries  in,  ii. 

338 
Brecislas  of  Bohemia,  i.  290 
Bremen,  Council  of,  in  1266,  1.  303 
Bremen,  Archbishop  of,   receives  letter 

from  Pius  IV.,  ii.  222,  note 
Breslau,  Council  of,  in  1416,  i.  419  ;  in 

1580,  ii.  233 
Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit,  i.  469  ;  re- 
suscitation of,  ii.  68 
Bribes  to  avert  suppression  of  monas- 
teries, ii.  93,  note 
Brice,  St.,  story  of,  concerning  paternity 

of  child,  i.  79-80 
Bridfrith,  Life  of  St.  Dunstan,  i.  192,  note 
Bristol,  see  of,  created,  ii.  100 
Brittany,  Church  of,  i.  134,  note  ;  priestly 

marriage  in,  i.  312 
British    clergy,    corruption  of,    i.  183 ; 

Church,  discipline  of,  i.  184  ;  in  ninth 

century,  i.  198 
Briviesca,  Sebastian,  guilty  priest,  quietly 

sent  away,  ii.  216 
Brothels,  kept  by  prelates,  ii.  57  ;  Louis 

XV.  orders  arrest  of  priests  frequent- 
ing, ii.  303 
Brou-Lauriere,  M.  de,  case  of  marriage 

of,  ii.  323 
Brixen,   schismatic   synod  of,   in    1080, 

i.  284 
Briick,  "Kirche  in  Deutschland,"  ii.  336, 

note 
Brunhilda  appeals  to  Gregory  the  Great, 

i.  139 
Bruno  of  Toul  created  Pope  as  Leo  IX., 

i.  218 
Bruno,  St.,  reforms  by,  i.  319  ;  founds 

Grande  Chartreuse,  ii.  23,  note  ^ 
Brunswick,  chapter  of,  in  1476,  ii.  18 
Brut  y  Tywysogion  on  married  priests, 

i.  198 


Buccer  insists  on  priestly  marriage,  ii. 

72,  note 
Buchanan,  David,  on  Langlande,  ii.  78, 

note 
Buddha,  reduces  Sankhyism  to  religious 
system,  i.  6-7  ;  supposed  virgin  birth 
of,  i.  22 
Buddhism,  many  observances  of  Latin 
Christianity  derived  from,  i.  23  ;    mo- 
nastic orders  of,  i.  101-2 
Bulgaria,  Manichseism    transmitted 

through,  i.  244,  459 
Bulgarian  Church,  rules  for,  i.  161 
Bull,  Pius  III.,  suppressed,  ii.  185 
Bull,  papal,  Exsurge  Domine,  ii.  40  ;  In- 
junctum  nobis,  ii.  131 ;   Ad  canonum, 
ii.  174,  note  ;  Quenadmordum  soUicitus, 
ii.  229,  note  ;  Cum  sicut  nuper,  ii.  258, 
note ;  Universi  Dominici  Gregis,  ii.  264 ; 
Sacramentum  Poenitentia,  ii.  267,  275, 
357 ;    Etsi    pastoralis,    ii.   275,    note ; 
Apostolicse  sedis,  ii.  277  ;    Dominions 
ac  Kedemptor,  ii.  335  ;  In  ca3na  Do- 
mine, ii.  355 
Burchardi  Decretorum,  ii.  251,  note 
Burchard,  master  of  ceremonies  to  Alex- 
ander VI.,  i.  429 
Burckhardt  of  Worms  on  celibacy,  i.  206 
Burdino,  Maurice,  anti-pope,  i.  385 
Bure,  Idelette  de,  wife  of  Calvin,  ii.  151 
Burghley  tries  to  restrain  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, ii.  143 
Burgos,  Council  of,  in  1080,  i.  372 
Burial,     Christian,     denied   to    married 

priests,  i.  225  ;  to  concubines,  i.  380 
Burmah,  number  of  "  lamas  "  in,  i.  103 
Burnet,  Bishop,  on  English  monasteries 
ii.  90, 98,  99  ;  on  date  of  Beggars'  Peti- 
tion, ii.  91,  note ;    on  matrimonialists 
under  Edward  VI.,  ii.  118  ;  on  Anglican 
doctrine  and  worship  under  Edward 
VI.,  ii.  121  ;    on  Articles   of  English 
Church,  ii.  140,  note 
Burning  alive    threatened  for    married 

priests  in  1524,  ii.  48 
Bassy-Kabutin,  ii.  242 
Butler,  John,   on  priestly  marriage,  ii. 
109,  note 

Cabassut  on  apostolic  canons,  i.  41,  note 

Cadalus,  elected  anti-pope,  i.  235  ;  party 
of,  broken  up,  i.  237 

Cadam,  transaction  of,  in  1553,  ii.  69-70 

Cadiz,  Cortes  of,  in  181 3,  ii.  336 

Caesarea,  synod  at,  i.  58 

Caesarius,  St.,  of  Aries,  on  marriage  of 
nuns,  i.  123 ;  rule  of,  i.  125 

Csesarius  of  Heisterbach,  on  influence  of 
priesthood,  i.  431  ;  on  priestly  "  solici- 
tation," ii.  276 

Caietano,  Cardinal,  at  Diet  of  Augsburg, 
ii.  46 

Cain  Patraic,  i.  360 

Caisho,  priest  of,  ii.  134,  note 


372 


INDEX 


Calabria,  celibacy  enforced  in,  i.  78,  395 

Calatrava,  Knights  of,  allowed  to  marry, 
i.  454 

Calini,  Archbishop,  reports  from  Trent,  ii. 
202 

Calixtins,  the,  i.  479 

Calixtus  I.,  Hippolytus  enumerates  evil 
ways  of,  i.  25 

Calixtus  II.,  enforces  celibacy  in  France, 
1.  323  ;  scanty  success  of,  i.  385  ;  lines 
written  on,  i.  349  ;  sermon  of,  on  abuse 
of  confessional,  ii.  253  ;  declares  mar- 
riage dissolved  by  orders,  i.  385-6 

Calixtus,  work  on  celibacy  by,  ii.  300 

Calne,  Council  of,  in  978,  i.  198 

Calvi,  Donate,  on  religious  orders,  i.  104- 
5,  note 

Calvin,  Confession  of  Faith,  ii.  151 ;  mar- 
riage of,  ii.  151 

Calvinism,  ii.  150-170 

Calvinists,  marriage  of,  ii.  152  ;  dispute 
with  Lutherans  and  Philippists,  ii.  225, 
note  ;  marriage  of  Calvinist  woman  to 
priest,  ii.  238 

Calvo,  Fray  Francisco,  denounces  him- 
self for  improper  flagellation,  ii.  279 

Camaldoli,  monks  of,  i.  213  ;  demoralisa- 
tion of,  ii.  8 

Cambrai,  Manichseism  at,  in  1025,  i.  244; 
man  burned  at,  for  Hildebrandine 
doctrine,  i.  282, 812  ;  neglects  to  adopt 
Augsburg  Formulary,  ii.  191  ;  Council 
of,  in  1300,  ii.  244  ;  1550,  ii.  191  ;  1565, 
ii.  239  ;  1661,  ii.  273 

Camin,  synod  of,  in  1454,  ii.  20,  note 

Campeggi,  Cardinal,  persecutes  married 
priests,  ii.  48  ;  sent  to  Germany  to 
check  heresy,  ii.  57  ;  co-legate  in  Queen 
Katherine's  divorce,  ii.  83  ;  assists  in 
suppression  of  monasteries,  ii.  83 

Canonical  age  for  women  resident  with 
priests,  ii.  186 

Canons,  apostolical  {see  Apostolical) 

Canons,  regular,  institution  of,  i.  152  ;  of 
Fecamp,  expulsion  of,  i.  179,  note  ;  dis- 
cussion on  marriage  of,  i.  317  ;  forced 
to  cloistered  life,  i.  319  ;  marriage  of, 
in  twelfth  century,  i.  326;  hereditary  in 
England,  i.  330  ;  replace  Culdees  in 
Scotland,  i.  367  ;  laxity  of  rule  of,  i. 
375-6  ;  demoralisation  of,  in  fifteenth 
century,  ii.  15  ;  unclerical  habits  of 
German,  in  fourteenth  century,  i.  422, 
note  ;  morals  of,  in  Brunswick  in  1476, 
ii.  18;  Gardiner  ordered  to  eject  from 
Westminster,  ii.  126,  note 

Canterbury,  Christ  Church,  in  eleventh 
century,  i.  199  ;  number  of  married 
clergy  in  archdeaconry  of,  ii.  139,  note 

*'  Capacities  "  given  to  ejected  monks,  ii. 
93 

Capito,  Wolfgang  Fabricius,  persecutes 
married  priests,  ii.  43  ;  is  married,  ii. 
48 


Caprara,    Cardinal,    legate,  on   married 

priests,  ii.  316 
Capua,  Council  of,  in  389,  i.  68 
Caraffa,  Cardinal,  becomes  Pope,  ii.  131  ; 

head  of  commission  for  reform,  ii.  183 
Cardinalate,  childlessness  requisite  for, 

ii.  227 
Cardinal's    College,     Ipswich,   Wolsey's 

foundation,  ii.  83 
Cardinal's     College,     Oxford,    Wolsey's 

foundation,  ii.  82 
Carloman  seeks  aid  of  Church,  i.  144  ; 

endeavours  to  reform  Church,  i.  148  ; 

enters  monastery  of  Monte  Casino,  i. 

151 
Carlostadt,  advocates  priestly  marriage, 

ii.  43 ;  treatise  of,  ii.  43 
Carlovingians,  the,  i.  141-63 
Carmelites,  miraculous    scapular  of,    i. 

415  ;  Franciscan  attacks  in  *'  Creed  of 

Piers  Ploughman,"  i.  439,  note 
Carmelite  convents,  male  and  female,  at 

Kome,  with  underground  communica- 
tion, ii.  305 
Carnarvonshire,     complaint     regarding 

priests  in,  ii.  16-17 
Carpocrates,  heresy  of,  i.  20 
Carracioli,  Bishop  of  Troyes,  married,  ii. 

152,  note 
Carranza,     Archbishop    of    Toledo,    on 

"  solicitation,"  ii.  255 
Carterius,  Bishop,  case  of,  i.  26 
Carthage,  Council  of,  in  348,  i.  109;  third 

and  fourth  Councils,  in  397  and  398,  i. 

74 ;  fifth  Council  of,  in  401,  i.  75 
Carthusian  asceticism,  i.  448 
Carthusians  of  London  resist  Henry  VIII., 

ii.  85-6 
Cashel,  Archbishop,  interrogates  Clement 

III.  on  children  of  bishops,  i.  363 
Cashel,  Council  of,  in  1171,  i.  364 
Cassander,   George,   advocates    priestly 

marriage,  ii.  210 
Cassation,  Court  of,  ii.  322,  324 
Cassianus,  heretical  views  of,  i.  20 
Cassianus,  John,  abbot  of  St.  Victor, 

Marseilles,  i.  122 
Cassiodorus  relates  story  of  Paphnutius, 

i.  52 
Caste,  priestly,  hereditary  transmission 

would  create,  i.  347 
Castel-Fuerte,  Marques  del,  ii.  248 
Castillo  y  Ayensa,  ii.  336,  note 
Castration  of  Galli,  i.  42 
Casuistry,  applied  to  "solicitation,"  ii. 

263,   271  ;   effect  of,  on  morality,  ii. 

276 
Catalini,  work  on  Congregation  of  Index, 

ii,  184,  note 
Catarini,  Cardinal,  president  of  Consulta, 

on    canons  and    discipline,     Vatican 

Council,  ii.  328 
Catarino,  Ambrogio,    controversy    with 

Luther,  ii.  41 


INDEX 


373 


Caterina,  St.,  de  Pistoia  on  immorality  of 
confessors,  ii.  304 

Cathari,  heresy  of,  i.  245,  459 

Catharine  von  Bora,  ii.  50,  51 

Catherine  de  Medicis  and  the  Council  of 
Trent,  ii.  221-2  ;  request  on  priestly 
marriage  and  cup  for  laity,  ii.  239 

Catholicism,  observances  of,  borrowed 
from  Buddhism,  i.  23 

Catholics  "  Old,"  ii.  329 

Catholics,  persecution  of,  in  Scotland, 
ii.  169-70 

Caumont,  case  of  married  priest  in,  i.  310 

Cavour  introduces  civil  marriage  in 
Sardinia,  ii.  330 

Cayetana  de  la  Providencia,  Sor,  case  of, 
ii.  285-6 

C6]e-de  or  Culdee,  i.  366 

Celestin  III.  sends  legate  to  Bohemia, 
i.  293  ;  on  hereditary  transmission  of 
benefices,  i.  404 

Celestin  I.  (pseudo)  on  abuse  of  confes- 
sional, ii.  252 

Celibacy,  argument  as  to  early  practice 
of,  i.  12  ;  St.  Jerome  admits  lack  of 
injunction  for,  i.  13 ;  first  command  to 
clergy  to  practise,  i.  59,  62  ;  decretal 
of  Siricius  to  Archp.  Himerius  on,  i. 
63  ;  evidence  that  discipline  of,  was 
new,  i.  65  ;  Jovinian  denies  eflScacy  of, 
i.  69  ;  decretal  of  Siricius  opposed  by 
Vigilantus,  i.  71  ;  decretal  of  Siricius 
made  compulsory  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  i. 
72;  progress  of,  not  effectually  resisted, 
i.  74  ;  not  enforced  by  third  or  fourth 
Council  of  Carthage,  74-5  ;  Church  in 
Gaul  neglects  rule  of,  i.  78  ;  resisted 
after  decretals  of  Siricius,  i.  78 ; 
Western  Church  committed  to,  i.  81 ; 
numerous  councils  discuss,  i.  83;  in 
West,  matter  of  discipline,  not  doc- 
trine, i.  94  ;  canons  of  Quinisext  on, 
i.94;  laxity  of  practice  of,  i.  96; 
views  of  Abyssinian  and  Coptic  Chris- 
tians on,  i.  99-100  ;  Saxon  Church  re- 
gardless of,  i.  203 ;  zeal  of  Gregory 
VII.  for,  i.  260  ;  attributed  to  Gregory 
I.  and  Gregory  VII.,  i.  139,  266  ; 
Alexander  II.  and  Leo  IX.  on,  i.  266  ; 
great  influence  of,  upon  Church,  i.  267  ; 
enforcement  of,  causes  riots  in  Passau, 
i.  273  ;  of  military  orders,  i,  451,  454  ; 
of  heretical  sects,  i.  459  ;  Wickcliffe's 
views  upon,  doubtful,  i.  474: ;  attacked 
by  John  Laillier,  ii.  29 ;  Luther  stig- 
matises rule  of,  ii.  41 ;  Bernhardi  stigma- 
tises rule  of,  ii.  42  ;  numerous  books  in 
sixteenth  century  ridicule,  ii.  103 ;  a 
point  of  faith,  in  Council  of  Paris, 
1528,  ii.  172  ;  dispensations  from  vows 
of,  ii.  173-4  ;  supported  by  better  part 
of  clergy,  Reign  of  Terror,  ii.  313 ;  ques- 
tion of,  not  settled  by  Concordat,  ii. 
319 


Celibates,  disabilities  of,  removed,  i.  107 

Celsus  of  Armagh,  i.  361 

Celtic  Churches,  original  pure  simplicity 

of,  i.  360 
Cenobites,  beginning  of  society  of,  i.  105  ; 

janizaries  of  Cyril,  i.  117 
Cent  Nouvclles  Nouvelles,  ii.  242,  iiote 
Ceres,  celibacy  of  priestesses  of,  i.  43 
Cesarini,  Cardinal,   refuses  to  dissolve 

Council,  ii.  10 
Ceuta,  hard  labour  in,  ii.  291 
Ceylon,  number  of  monks  in,  i.  103 
Chabot,  M.  Charles,  computes  number  of 

French  ecclesiastics,  ii.  313,  note 
Chalcedon,  Council  of,  in  451,  i.  118 
Chaldean  and  Mazdean  belief  in  future 

life,  i.  8 
Chalons,  Council  of,  in  893,  i.  162 
Charibert,  laws  of,  on  forcible  marriage, 

i.  134 
Charity    of    monastic    orders,    i.    446, 

ii.  101 
Charity  and  education, Concordat  of  1851 

re-establishes  orders  devoted  to,  ii.  336, 

337 
Charlemagne,  carries  out  Church  organi- 
sation,   i.   152-3 ;    representations  to 

Adrian  I.  by,  i.  153 
Charles,  Archduke,  asks  for  clerical  mar- 
riage, ii.  212 
Charles    Borromeo,  St.,  ii.  227  ;  orders 

use  of  confessional  box,  ii.  255 
Charles-le-Chauve  argues  against  papal 

pretensions,  i.  159 
Charles  the  Lame,  i.  420 
Charles  Martel,  oppresses  the  Church, 

i.  145  ;  condemned  to  eternal  torture, 

i.  146  ;  tomb  of,  opened,  i.  146 
Charles    IV.    (Emperor)    urges  reform, 

i.  422,  note 
Charles  V.,   policy  of,  in    1530,  ii.  64; 

temporises  with  Reformation,  ii.  69, 

72  ;  issues  the  Interim,  ii.  73  ;  demands 

dispensations  for  married  priests,  ii. 

74  ;    accepts    Reformation,    ii.  75-6 ; 

demands   reassembling  of  Council  of 

Trent,  ii.  75  ;   objects   to  transfer  of 

Council  to  Bologna,  ii.  74  ;    seeks  to 

reform  German  Church,  ii.  179,  note 
Charles  VII.  (France)  fines  concubinary 

priests,  ii.  12 
Charles  VIII.,  Neapolitan  conquest  by, 

ii.  31 
Charles   IX.    (France)    favours   clerical 

marriage,  ii.  197 
Charles    X.  tries  to  introduce  Jesuits, 

ii.  338 
Charles  de  Valois  intervenes  in  Flanders, 

i.  400 
Charter   House,   fate   of  monks   of,  ii 

85-6 
Charter  of  Oswald's  Law,  i.  195 
Chartrier,  Alain,  on  condition  of  Church. 

ii.  9 


374 


INDEX 


Chartreuse,  strictness  of  rule  of,  ii.  23, 
note 

Chassidim  (Assideans  of  the  Vulgate), 
i.  8 

Chastity,  of  barbarians  praised  by  Sal- 
vianus,  i.  131  ;  feudal  tenure  by,  i. 
176  ;  gift  of  to  be  obtained  by  seeking, 
i.  409  ;  Archbishop  of  Treves  on,  ii. 
187  ;  sacrifice  of,  i.  4  ;  vows  of,  intro- 
duced, i.  30  ;  perversion  of  vows  of, 
i.  142-3  ;  vow  of,  necessary  for  holy 
orders,  i.  207 

Chastity,  proverbial,  of  Irish  women,  ii. 
341 

Chataigneu,  Abbe,  court  of  Angouleme 
on,  ii.  324 

Chatelleraut,  Duke  of,  ii.  163 

Chdtillon  de,  Bishop  of  Beauvais,  mar- 
ried, ii.  153,  note 

Chaucer,  description  of  priest's  wife  and 
children,  i.  420  ;  plain  speaking  of,  i. 
432  ;  Personne's  Tale,  i.  437 

Chavard,  Abbe,  Le  Cdibat  des  Pritres,  ii. 
298,  7iote,  300,  309,  340,  notes  :  marries 
at  Geneva,  ii.  324 

Chelsea,  Council  of,  in  787,  i.  190; 
canons  of,  i.  190 

Chepstow,  Abbess  of,  accuses  Dr.  Lon- 
don, ii.  97 

Cheregato,  legate,  on  priestly  immunity, 
ii.  49,  note 

Chertsey,  reformation  of  monastery  of, 
i.  195 

Chester,  see  of,  created,  ii.  100 

Chichester,  Bishop  of,  on  commission  to 
try  married  bishops,  ii.  125 

Chiericato  and  religious  scandals,  ii. 
244 

Childebert,  laws  of,  on  forcible  marriage, 
i.  134 

Children  cause  ineligibility  to  episco- 
pate, i.  93  ;  to  cardinalate,  ii.  227 

Children  of  ecclesiastics  {see  also  Here- 
ditary transmission),  in  tenth  century, 
i.  165, 166, 170  ;  Otho  the  Great  issues 
edict  on,  i.  170 ;  Church  stripped  to 
benefit,  i.  175  ;  Adalbero  of  Metz  does 
not  refuse  ordination  to,  i.  178 ;  dis- 
abilities of,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
i.  207  ;  yet  openly  provided  for,  i. 
210  ;  considered  ineligible  for  ordina- 
tion, i.  215  ;  admitted  to  holy  orders 
by  Alexander  II.,  i.  241 ;  Archdeacon  of 
Salzburg  bewails  ordination  of,  i.  295 ; 
follow  father's  profession  in  Poland, 
i.  301  ;  pronounced  infamous,  i.  303  ; 
given  as  hostages  in  Friesland,  i. 
304  ;  Paschal  II.  addresses  Anselm  on, 
•  i.  335  ;  Thibaut  of  Etampes  on,  i.  335  ; 
treated  as  legitimate  in  deed  of  thir- 
teenth century,  i.  354  ;  Gweutian  code 
on,  i.  358  ;  Archbishop  of  Cashel  ques- 
tions Clement  III.  on,  i.  363  ;  recog- 
nised in  diocese  of  Salamanca,  i.  379  ; 


ineligible  for  knighthood,  i.  404 ; 
fathers  not  to  oflBciate  at  marriage  of, 
ii.  17  ;  not  to  assist  fathers  in  the 
Mass,  ii.  17  ;  dispensations  for,  ii.  21 ; 
taxes  of  penitentiary  for,  ii.  55  ;  posi- 
tion under  Edward  VI.,  ii.  122  ;  Queen 
Mary  repeals  Act  legitimaticg,  ii. 
124;  formally  legitimated  under  Eliza- 
beth, ii.  138  ;  may  inherit  property  of 
parents,  ii.  153-4  ;  promotion  of,  pro- 
hibited in  Scotland,  ii.  160  ;  daughters 
not  to  be  married  to  barons  or  lairds, 
sons  not  to  be  barons  or  lairds,  ii. 
160 ;  dispensations  for  legitimation  of, 
ii.  219 ;  not  to  live  with  parents  in 
Salzburg,  ii.  231-2 ;  prohibited  from 
holding  father's  benefices,  ii.  234 ; 
enriched  with  patrimony  of  Church, 
ii.  237 

China,  development  of  Buddhism  in, 
i.  102 

Christ  College,  Oxford,  founded  by 
Wolsey,  ii.  82 ;  endowed  by  confis- 
cated monasteries,  ii.  82 

Christian  Church,  puritanism  of  early,  i. 
19 

Christianity,  purifying  influence  of,  i. 
441 

Chrodegang,  St.,  of  Metz,  rule  of,  i. 
152 

Chrysostom,  St.  John,  extravagant  praise 
of  virginity,  i.,  90 

Church,  Catholic,  morals  of  {see  Morals) 

Church,  the  Ante-Nicene,  i.  17  ;  the 
Latin,  great  fact  in  history  of  civilisa- 
tion, i.  1  ;  accession  of  property  due 
to  celibacy,  i.  61 ;  early  characteristics 
of  Greek,  i.  87  ;  severity  of  discipline 
in  Latin,  i.  93  ;  independent  organi- 
sation of  Latin,  i.  130  ;  oppressed  by 
Austrasian  mayors  of  palace,  i.  142  ; 
grows  independent  of  secular  control, 
i.  163  ;  responsibility  of,  i.  442  ;  corrup- 
tion of,  discussed  in  Vienna,  ii.  193, 
note;  subservient  in  no  country  to 
State,  ii.  334 ;  present  reactionary 
efforts  of,  ii.  363 ;  part  still  to  be 
played  by,  ii.  363 

Church  lands,  fate  of,  in  Scotland,  ii. 
163-4  ;  in  England,  ii.  90  ;  in  France, 
ii.  306-7 

Churching  of  priests'  wives  forbidden,  ii. 
315 

Ciempozuelos,  case  of  Sor  Cayetana  in, 
ii.  285-6 

Circilliones,  vagabond  monks,  i.  122 

Circular  discipline,  ii.  289 

Cirita,  Juan,  case  of,  i.  124,  note 

Cistercian  discipline,  St.  Malachi  ini- 
tiates his  attendants  in,  i.  362 

Cities,  monks  not  allowed  to  enter,  i. 
119 

Citra,  justiciary  of,  fines  clerical  concu- 
bines, i.  420-1 


INDEX 


375 


Civil  marriage,  ii.  330  ;  absolution  denied 
to  parties  contracting,  ii.  331  ;  made 
essential  by  law,  ii.  332 
Civilisation  helped  by  monachism,  i.  126, 

445  ;  helped  by  puritanism,  i.  445 
Clair  sur  Epte,  treaty  of,  i.  158 
Clairvaux,  story  of  monk  of,  i.  321-2 
Clarembald,  Abbot,  evil  reputation  of,  i. 

342 
Claude  of  Evreux  attempts  reform,  ii. 

240 
Claude  of  Macon,  ii.  173 
Clemanges,  De,  on  condition  of  Church, 

i.  426,  ii.  1,  4 
Clement  II., appointed  by  Emperor  Henry 
III.,  i.  214  ;  tries  to  suppress  simony, 
i.215 
Clement   III.,  on  self-mutilation,  i.  30, 

note  ;  on  children  of  bishops,  i.  363 
Clement  IV. ,  enforces  celibacy  in  Austria 
and  Denmark,  i.  303  ;  bulls  from,  to 
Wolsey,   ii.  82,  83,  84  ;  on  hereditary 
transmission,  ii.  174 
Clement  VIII.  on  jurisdiction  of  Spanish 

Inquisition,  ii.  261 
Clement  X.,  i.  415 
Clement  III.  (anti-pope),  on  concubinage, 

i.  284  ;  death  in  iioo,  i.  288 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  on  heresies,  i.  20, 

note  ;  on  the  Virgin,  i.  67-8,  note 
Clement,  Bishop,  a  "pestilent  heresiarch," 

i.  149 
Clement  of  Versailles,   pastoral   of,  on 

priestly  marriage,  ii.  314 
Clement XIV.  suppresses  Order  of  Jesuits, 

ii.  335 
Clergy,  Aniglican,  Macaulay's  estimate  of, 
ii.  149  ;  French,  antagonistic  to  Revo- 
lution, ii.  307  ;  resistance  to  celibacy, 
i.  211,  249,  263,  270,  273 
Clermont,  Councils  of,  in  1095  and  1130, 

i.  317,  387 
Cleves,  Duke  of,  asks  for  priestly  mar- 
riage, ii.  194 
Climene,  Frere, prosecuted  for  25  offences, 

ii.  361 
Clotair  I.,  law  on  forcible  marriage,  i.  134 
Clotair  II.  on  monastic  excesses,  i.  128, 

note 
Clovesho,  Council  of,  in  747,  i.  189 
Cnut,  ecclesiastical  laws  of,  i,  201 
Cochin  China,  Apostolic  Vicar  of,  appeals 

to  Pius  VI.,  ii.  275 
Cochlaeus,  John,  on  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, ii.  210,  note 
Coelestin  III.  on  hereditary  transmission, 

i.  404 
Coklaw,  Thomas,  marriage  of,  ii.  166 
Colet,  John,  good  work  of,  in  sixteenth 
century,  ii.  78  ;  on  vices  of  the  Church, 
ii.  78-9 
Colloquy  of  Poissyin  1561,  ii.  238-9 
Colmenas,  Padre,  illicit  relations  in  con- 
fessional, ii.  286 


Cologne,  Manichseism  in,  in  1146,  i.  245  ; 
Council  of,  in  1260,  i.  418  ;  1306,  i.  470 ; 
1423,  ii.  7  ;  1527,  ii.  171,  note  ;  speech 
of  "Orator"  at  Council  of,  ii.  171, 
note  ;  Herman  von  Wied,  Archbishop 
of,  ii.  176  ;  Archbishop  of,  issues 
Augsburg  Formula,  ii.  188 ;  deplores 
licence  of  times,  ii.  188 

Coloman,  King,  enforces  celibacy  in 
Hungary,  i.  298 

Colonies,  Spanish,  immorality  of  clergy 
in,  ii.  245,  247-8 

Columba,  St.,  asceticism  of,  i.  142  ;  rule 
of,  i.  185  ;  establishes  Christianity  in 
Scotland,  i.  185 

Columban,  St.,  Penitential  of,  i.  68 

Comedians  forbidden  to  perform  in 
nunneries,  ii.  189 

Commendone,  legate,  holds  out  hope 
of  clerical  marriage,  ii.  194  ;  sent  by 
Pius  V.  to  Augsburg,  ii.  218 

Comminges,  miracle  in,  i.  325 

Communion  in  both  elements,  in  early 
Church,  i.  35  ;  refused  to  laity,  i.  35  ; 
demanded  in  Bohemian  Church,  i.  480, 
ii.  212  ;  open  question  at  Diet  of  Augs- 
burg, ii.  66 ;  people  of  Merseberg  de- 
mand, ii.  72  ;  demanded  by  Emperor 
Ferdinand,  ii.  193  ;  by  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
ii.  75 ;  granted  to  Germany,  ii.  209  ; 
withdrawn,  212 

Comparative  merits  of  virginity  and 
marriage,  i.  37,  38,  432  ;  ii.  204 

Comparative  morality  of  secular  and 
regular  clergy,  ii.  294 

Compiegne,  marriage  of  priests  in,  i.  326 

Compostella,  Council  of,  in  11 14,  i.  376 

Concordat,  of  15 16  with  Francis  I., 
ii.  55  ;  1801,  ii.  316  ;  re-establishment 
of  monachism  forbidden  by,  ii.  337  ; 
of  1851,  ii.  336 

Concordia  discordantium  canonum,  i. 
390 

Concubinage,  punishment  for,  under 
Justinian,  i.  92;  less  objectionable 
than  matrimony,  i.  166  ;  prohibited  in 
Councils  of  Anse  and  Poitiers,  i.  181  j 
less  odium  attached  to,  in  Middle 
Ages,  i.  230,  note  ;  of  escaped  priest  of 
Clairvaux,  i.  321  ;  denounced  by  John 
of  Crema,  himself  guilty  of,  i.  338-9  ; 
not  defended  as  a  right  in  thirteenth 
century,  i.  357 ;  condemned  under 
pressure  in  Spain,  i.  378  ;  difficulty  in 
suppressing,  i.  379 ;  attempts  to  sup- 
press, in  thirteenth  century,  i.  380 ; 
scale  of  confiscation  for  those  guilty 
of,  i.  381  ;  Antonio  Fluviano  upon, 
i.  456 ;  priest  practising,  guilty  of 
heresy,  i.  478  ;  curious  German  tract 
against,  ii.  54  ;  capital  punishment  for, 
changed  to  confiscation,  ii.  115  ;  uni- 
versality of,  a  reason  for  condoning, 
ii.  176  ;  clergy  of  Mainz,  Treves,  and 


376 


INDEX 


Cologne  in  league  to  defend,  ii.  178  ; 
pronounced  heretical,  i.  478 ;  for- 
bidden by  Augsburg  code,  ii.  186 ; 
Archbishop  of  Treves,  mandate 
against,  ii.  187  ;  provision  against,  in 
Council  of  Trent,  ii,  206  ;  forbidden  at 
Utrecht,  ii,  230-31  ;  callousness  con- 
cerning, ii.  296 ;  in  United  States, 
ii.  344  ;  toleration  of,  almost  universal, 
ii.  348 

Concubines  of  clergy,  in  Spain,  i.  136  ; 
to  be  visited  with  stripes  and  shaving, 
i.  171  ;  openly  kept  by  canons,  St, 
Ursman  and  Antoin,  i.  326  ;  a  bishop 
confesses  to  keeping,  i.  355 ;  position 
of,  less  odious  in  Middle  Ages,  i.  230, 
note  ;  in  Scotland,  i.  231,  7iote  ;  excom- 
munication and  "burial  of  asses  "  for, 
i.  380  ;  Cortes  of  Castile  on  shameless- 
ness  of,  i.  382  ;  Pedro  the  Cruel,  orders 
concerning,  i.  382 ;  not  to  be  kept 
openly,  i.  411  ;  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
fine,  ii.  17  ;  legends  concerning,  i.  414  ; 
fined  by  Charles  the  Lame,  i.  420  ;  de 
familia  clericorum,  i.  421  ;  scourged  in 
Trani,  ii.  15-16 

Confessio  Golise  on  celibacy,  i.  353,  note 

Confession  of  Augsburg,  ii.  65  ;  refutation 
of,  ii.  eQ 

Conf  ession  of  Faith,  Calvinistic,ii.  151, 169 

Confession,  auricular,  commencement  of, 
ii.  252,  note ;  dispensation  from,  ii. 
173-4 

Confessional,  abuse  of,  in  Middle  Ages, 
i.  435  ;  celebrants  ordered  to  use  daily, 
ii.  244  ;  Council  of  Trent  on,  ii.  245 ; 
Miguel,  Albert,  on  priest  misusing,  ii. 
246,  7iote;  scandals  of,  ii.  251  ;  casu- 
istry regarding  solicitation  in,  ii.  263  ; 
difficult  to  determine  limits  of  inde- 
cency in,  ii.  268-9 ;  filthy  contagion 
spread  in,  ii,  269-70 ;  secrets  of,  in 
Spanish  archives,  ii.  283 

"  Confessional,  Theory  and  Practice  of 
the,"  Schieler,  ii.  277,  note 

Confessional  box,  first  evolved,  ii.  255 ; 
to  be  used  in  all  churches,  ii.  256  ; 
priests  oppose  seclusion  of,  ii.  256 

Confessors,  exempt  from  torture  by 
rack,  ii.  284  ;  denounced,  not  in  secret 
prison  during  trial,  ii.  286;  St.  Caterina 
di  Pistoia  on  immorality  of,  ii.  304  ; 
rules  for,  with  regard  to  ''denuncia- 
tion," ii.  355-6 

Confiscation  of  estates  of  married  priests, 
1.92 

Congregation  of  the  Index,  Fr.  Catalini 
on,  ii.  184,  note 

Congregation,  of  the  Inquisition,  ii.  219  ; 

Lords  of  (Scotland),  ii,  168 
Conjo,  convent  of  S.  Maria  in,  i.  376 

Conrad,  King  of  Lombardy,  i.  260 
Conrad,  legate,  holds  Council  of  Mainz, 
i.  418 


Conrad  of  Prague,  the  Hussite,  i.  47 
note 

Conrad  of  Wurzburg,  imprisons  two 
married  canons,  ii.  49  ;  on  immorality 
of  clergy,  ii.  58,  note 

Consilium  de  emendanda  ecclesia,  ii. 
183  ;  on  Index  Librorum  Prohibi- 
torum,  ii.  184  ;  translated  by  Luther, 
ii.  184 

Constance,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in, 
i,  272  ;  Assembly  of,  in  1094,  i.  290; 
(Ecumenical  Council  of,  deposes  John 
XXIII.,  i.  426-7 ;  Council  of,  orders 
burning  of  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague, 
ii,  3  ;  failure  of  Council  of,  ii.  5 ; 
marriage  of  clergy  suggested  at  Coun- 
cil of,  ii.  25  ;  synod  of,  in  1567,  ii.  58, 
note;  synod  of,  in  1609,  ii.  236 

Constantino,  assembles  first  General 
Council  (of  Niceea),  i.  46  ;  encourages 
monachism,  i.  107 

Constantino  Copronymus  persecutes 
monks,  i,  97,  note 

Constantino  of  St,  Symphorian,  i.  178 

Constantinople,  Council  of,  in  381,  i. 
88-9  ;  in  400,  i.  90  ;  in  680,  i.  94 

Constat  Venaissin,  ii.  241 

Constitutions,  apostolical  (see  Apostoli- 
cal) 

Constitution  of  1791,  clerical  marriage 
in,  ii.  309 

Contarini,  Cardinal,  on  commission  for 
reformation,  ii.  183  ;  on  evils  of  celi- 
bacy, ii.  241,  note 

Continence  overbalanced  by  pride,  i.  19 

Continence,  vows  of  {see  Chastity) 

Consulento  Ecclesiastico,  il,  ii.  245,  note 

Convention,  National,  on  bishops  and 
priestly  marriage,  ii.  314 

Convents  {see  Nunneries  and  Monachism) 

Conventuals,  ii.  21 

Converts  from  Catholicism,  marriage  of, 
ii.  152 

Convocation  of  1536  on  heresy  and  celi- 
bacy, ii.  106 ;  of  1538  on  celibacy, 
private  Masses,  and  communion  in  one 
kind,  ii.  109  ;  of  1554  enforces  celibacy, 
ii.  127  ;  of  1557,  legislation  of,  ii.  133 

Coptic  Church,  customs  of,  i.  99 

Cordova,  Fray  Francisco  di,  on  success 
of  Lutheranism,  ii,  224 

Cormecte,  Thomas,  wandering  preacher, 
ii.  25  ;  burned  at  stake,  ii.  26 

Cornelius  Agrippa,  ii.  37 

Cornaro,  Cardinal,  ii.  202 

Corruption  of  laity  by  clergy,  1.  323,  370, 
ii.  237 

Cosmo,  Bishop  of  Prague,  i.  290 

Cosmo,  Dean  of  Prague,  married,  i.  293  ; 
relates  case  of  married  priest,  i.  293 

Cossa,Balthazar,  afterwards  John  XXIII., 
i.  426 

Councils  vary  on  canonical  age  for 
women,  ii.  343 


INDEX 


377 


Councils,    revision    of    proceedings    at 

Rome,  ii.  345,  note 
Countesses,   priests'   wives    rank    as,  i. 

312 
Cournand,  Abbe,  proposes  clerical  mar- 
riage, ii.  309  ;  marriage  of,  ii.  310 
Court  of  Augmentations,  ii.  92 
Courts,  mixed,  for  married  priests,  i.  308 
Coutances  Cathedral,   no  Mass  in,   for 

seventy  years,  i.  158 
Cowl,  Luther's  wearing  of,  ii.  44-5 
Cows  as  source  of  ecclesiastical  revenue, 

i.  363 
Cox,  Bishop,  on  Queen  Elizabeth's  In- 
junctions, ii.  143 
Cozza,  Cardinal,  on  abuse  of  confessional, 
ii.  269,  note  ;  on  papal  decrees  on  con- 
fessional, ii.  278 
Cranach,    Lucas,    present    at    Luther's 
marriage,  ii.  61 ;  portrait  of  Luther's 
bride  by,  ii.  52 
Cranmer,  Confutation  of  Unwritten  Veri- 
ties, ii.  81  ;  intercedes  for  Patmore,  ii. 
104 ;   secret  marriage  of,  ii.  105 ;   on 
celibacy  for  ejected  monks,   ii.  113  ; 
second  wife  of,  niece  of  Osiander,  ii. 
114 
Creed  of  Piers  Ploughman,  on  foreign 
prelates,  i.  354,  note  ;  on  corruption  of 
clergy,  i.  438  ;  on  Carmelites,  i.  439, 
note 
Cremona,  reform  of  priesthood  in,  i.  256, 

note 
Cristofori  di  Vercelli,  ii.  228 
Cristoval  de  Septilveda  and  solicitation, 

ii.  289 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  and  English  religious 
houses,  ii.  87-8  ;  exaggerated  accounts 
of  monasteries  sent  to,  ii.  88-9  ;  bribes 
tendered  to,  ii.  93,  note ;  favours  priestly 
marriage,  ii.   105 ,    does  not  enforce 
harshest  measures,  ii.  115 ;  fall  of,  ii. 
115 
Crossed  Friars,  case  of  abbot  of,  ii.  97 
Culdees,  i.  366  ;  rule  of,  relaxed,  i.  366  ; 

disappearance  of,  i.  367 
Cullagium  {see  Licences) 
Cumad  Espuc,  virgin  bishop,  i.  360 
Cunegunda,  St.,   asceticism    of,  i.  204, 

note 
Cunibert  of  Turin  reproached  for  laxity, 

i.  239 
Cuno  of  Ratisbon,  i.  215 
Curia,  denounced  by  Cormecte,  ii.   26  ; 

power  of,  in  Germany,  ii.  39 
Cuthbert  of  Canterbury,  reforms  Saxon 
Church,    i.    188 ;     holds    Council    of 
Clovesho,  i.  189 
Cuthbert  of  London  prohibits  Beggars' 

Petition,  ii.  91,  note 
Cuyck,  Bishop  Ruremonde  of,    on  cor- 
ruptions, ii.  236 
Cynog,  Book  of,  rules  for  married  priests, 
i.  359 


Cyprian,  St.,  rebukes  promiscuous  bath- 
ing, i,    31  ;    shows    consideration    for 
human  weakness,  i.  32  ;  compares  vir- 
ginity and  marriage,  i,  37 
Cyril,  St.,  Cenobites,  janizaries  of,  i.  117 
Cyrillus  converts  Bohemia,  i.  290,  note 

Dabealis  of  Spalatro  degraded  by 
Leo  IX.,  i.  220 

Daimbert  of  Sens  and  conduct  of  his 
dignitaries,  i.  317 

Dalmatia,  priestly  marriage  in  tenth  cen- 
tury, i.  220  ;  relaxation  of  canons  in,  i. 
241  ;  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i.  299  ; 
synod  of,  in  1199,  i.  300 

Damasus  I.  (Pope)  asserts  clerical  celi- 
bacy, i.  63 

Damasus  II.,  pontificate  of  twenty-one 
days  of,  i.  218 

Damhouder,  jurisconsult  of  Flanders,  on 
character  of  clergy,  ii.  237 

Damiani,  St.  Peter,  relates  story  of 
Alberic  of  Marsico,  i.  176 ;  bewails 
fate  of  responsible  abbots,  i.  177 ; 
goads  Clement  II.  to  efforts  for  reform, 
i.  216  ;  story  of  life  of,  i.  216-18  ;  essay 
of,  paints  depravity  of  time,  i.  219 ; 
supports  Alexander  II.  against  anti- 
pope,  i.  235  ;  nearly  loses  life  while  on 
mission,  i.  237  ;  in  deadly  peril  at 
Milan,  i.  251 

Dampierre,  Guillaume  de,  case  of,  i. 
399 

Dancing  mania  considered  due  to  vitiated 
baptism,  i.  437 

Danes,  effect  of  incursions  of,  i.  158 

Danes,  Pierre,  Bishop  of  Vaur,  repartee 
of,  at  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  34,  note 

Darius,  Silvester,  papal  collector  in 
England,  ii.  39 

Daughters  {see  Children) 

Davanzati,  Bishop,  favours  clerical  mar- 
riage, ii.  300,  note 

Daviaux  of  Bordeaux  forbids  clerical 
marriage,  ii.  319 

David  I.,  reforms  of,  i.  367 

Deacons,  allowed  to  marry,  i.  28,  ii.  121  ; 
marriage  of,  forbidden,  i.  77,  92,  171, 
299,  300,  303,  331,  394 

Deacon,  case  of  married,  left  in  peace, 
i.  327 

Deaconesses,  ordination  of,  in  early 
Church,  i.  56  ;  marriage  of,  forbidden, 
i.  104,  note 

Deans  of  Friesland,  i.  304 

Death  penalty,  for  marrying  a  nun,  i.  109  ; 
for  seducing  a  nun,  i.  154  ;  for  clerical 
marriage  under  Six  Articles,  ii.  112 

Deaz  de  Luzo,  Bernardius,  canon  lawyer, 
ii.  176 

Debra,  Abbe,  case  of,  ii.  359  ;  32  offences 
of,  in  one  year,  ii.  361 

Decretals,  false,  on  clerical  celibacy,  i. 
154-5 


378 


INDEX 


Decretum  Gratiani,  compilation  of,  i.  13; 
denies  apostolic  origin  of  celibacy,  i.  13 
Defilement  for  Jewish  priests,  i.  5 
De  Captivitate  BabylonicaEcclesiaa,  ii.  41 
De  la  Croix  on  immoral  priests,  ii.  311 
De  Matrimonia  Sacerdotnm,  ii.  29 
De  Vanitate  Scientiarum,  ii.  37,  note 
Delfini,  nuncio,  ii.  201 
Demeter,  hierophants  of,  maintain  conti- 
nence, i.  42-3 
Democratic  element  in  Church,  i.  268 
Denis,  St.,  Council  of,  in  995,  i.  177 
Denmark,  position  of  concubines  in,  i. 

231,  note 
Denunciation,  duty  of,by  seduced  women, 
ii.  270,  272,  281  ;  often  slighted  or  dis- 
believed, ii.  284  ;  decision  on  case  of, 
in  1898,  ii.  353 
Denunciation,  self-,  ii.  291,  292,  357 
Denunciations,  two  required  for  case  to 
be  heard  in  Italy,  ii.  283  ;  second  often 
after  delay  of  years,  ii,  284 
Desforges,  on  clerical  marriage,  ii.  298  ; 

book  of,  burned,  ii.  299 
Desiderius  of  Monte  Cassino,  afterwards 

Pope  Victor  III.,  i.  210 
Devonshire  rebels  demand  the  Six  Ar- 
ticles, ii,  120 
Devotees  allowed  to  return  to  the  world, 

i.  30 
Diabolic  possession  of  priests'  wives,  i. 

280 
Diaconate,  women  admitted  to,  i.  56 
Dialogus  Naturae  et  Sophias  de  Castitate 

Clericorum,  i.  440 
Diego  Gelmirez,  commanded  to  reform 
diocese,  i.  373  ;  reforms  of,  do  not  in- 
clude celibacy,  i.  374  ;  accompanies 
Alfonso  VIII.  to  Portugal,  i.  374-5 ; 
experiences  of,  on  expedition,  i.  374-5; 
founds  convent  of  S.  Maria  of  Conjo, 
i.  376 
Diet,  German,  complaints  of,  in  15 10,  ii. 

32 
Diet,  Hungarian,  in  1498,  ii.  19 
Diether,  Archbishop,  case  of,  ii.  34,  note 
Digami,  subject  to  penance,  i.  24 ;   not 
admissible  to    holy  orders,  i,  25,    91, 
94,    138  ;    Eastern    Church    preserves 
early  tradition  concerning,  i.  91  ;  nu- 
merous in  Church,  i.  94  ;    Gregory  I. 
enforces   neglected  laws  on,   i.  138  ; 
Theodore  of   Canterbury,  orders  con- 
cerning,   i.    187 ;    prevalence    of,   in 
British  Church,  i.  183  ;  condemned  by 
Council  of  Spalatro,  i.  170  ;  ineligible  in 
Anglo-Saxon  Church,  i.  187  ;  recogni- 
tion of,  in  eleventh  century,  i.  238  ; 
not  allowed  in  Milan,   i.   247  ;   con- 
demned in  Hungary,  i.  297 ;  some  re- 
formers condemn,  ii.  53 
Dilapidation  of  Church  property,  i.  1 65, 

ii.  71 
Dimetian  Code  on  sons  of  priests,  i.  368 


Dimitri  of  Dalmatia  assumes  crown,  i. 

299 
Dionysius  of  Corinth  reproves  attempt  to 

make  celibacy  compulsory,  i.  21-2 
Dionysius,  King,  founds  Order  of  Jesus 

Christ,  i.  455 
Disabilities  of  married  priests,  i.  358-9  ; 

of  "soliciting"   confessors  nullified, 

ii.  351 
Dispensations,  papal,   evil  influence  of 

sale  of,  i.  397,  ii.  14-15  ;  power  of,  de- 
bated, ji.   27  ;  for  unchastity,  i.  148 ; 

for  married  priests,   ii.   74,   183;    for 

concubinage,   ii.    55 ;    from  vows   of 

chastity,    ii.  173-4 ;    for  marriage   in 

England,    ii.    209,    note ;    for    priests 

abusing  confessional,  ii.  253-4,  281-2  ; 

relieving  penitents  from  obligation  to 

"  denounce,"  ii.  355 
Diversity  of  opinion.  Act  for  abolishing, 

ii.  Ill 
Divorces  of  married  priests  in  England, 

ii.  114-15,  128 
Dogma,  celibacy  a  matter  of,  ii.  172 
Dolcino,  leader  of  heretical  sect,  i.  471 
Dollinger  and    "Old  Catholic"  move- 
ment, ii.  329 
Dominicans,  influence  of,  i.  467 
Donati,  Girolamo,  engaged  to  murder  St. 

Charles  Borromeo,  ii.  228 
Donatist  heresy,  i.  118,  note  ;  approached 

by  Theodore  of  Canterbury,  i.  186-7  ; 

Nicholas  II.  trenches  upon,  i.  228,  see 

note  ;  revived  by  Innocent  II.,  i.  294  ; 

condemned  by  Lucius  III.  i.  229,  note 
Doringk  on  sale  of  indulgences,  ii.  14, 

note 
Dormitantius,   nickname  of  St.  Jerome 

for  Vigilantius,  i.  72 
Dorothea  of  Denmark,  marriage  of,  ii.  63 
Dortmund,  synod  of,  in  1005,  i.  178 
Down,    St.  Malachi's  episcopate  of,   i. 

361 
Dracontius,  marriage  of,  acknowledged 

by  St.  Athanasius,  i.  53 
Dress,  clerical,  regulated  at  Constance, 

ii.  5 
Drogo  of  Terouane  persecutes  Brethren 

of  Watton,  i.  313 
Droit  de  marquette,  i.  441 
Douai,  Faculty   of,  ii.   270  ;   Desforges' 

book  on  priestly  marriage  reprinted  at, 

ii.  299 
Dualistic  theory  in  Manichaeism,  i.  33  ; 

recognised  in  Catharan  creed,  i.  459 
Dublin,  Council  of,  in  1186,  i.  364  ;  1217, 

i.  365 
Dumonteil,  Louis  Therese  Saturnin,  case 

of,  ii.  322-3 
Dunbar,    Bishop  of,  immorality  of,  ii. 

157 
Dunstan,  St.,  monastic  vows  of,  i.  192  ; 

exacts  severe  penance  for  Bang  Edgar,i. 

193 ;  summons  Council  which  punishes 


INDEX 


379 


unchastity,  i.  196 ;  preserved  from  ac- 
cident at  Calne  Council,  i.  198 

Du  Pin,  Louis  Ellies,  on  clerical  mar- 
riage, ii.  298 

Dupin  on  discipline  of  Orders,  ii.  302, 
note ;  on  Droit  ecclesiastique,  ii.  338, 
Tiote 

Duprat,  Cardinal,  efforts  at  reform  by, 
ii.  172 

Durand,  Bishop  William,  advocates  cleri- 
cal marriage,  ii.  25 

Durham,  Council  of,  in  1220,  i.  350,  note 

Durham,  Bishop  of,  to  report  on  married 
priests,  ii.  125 

Eadmer  on  canons  enforcing  celibacy, 
i.  334-5,  note,  337-8 

East  Anglia,  defence  of  monasteries  in, 
i.  197 

Eastern  Church,  divergence  of,  i.  87 ; 
rules  as  to  celibacy,  i.  91 ;  monachism 
of,  i.  116-17 

Easter,  different  computations  of,  i.  185, 
note 

Ebionim  (or  Poor  Men),  i.  11  ;  honour 
virginity,  i.  12 ;  tainted  by  heresies 
allowing  immorality,  i.  21 

Ebrard,  history  of  Watten  by,  i.  313,  note 

Ecclesiastical  procedure  and  immunity, 
i.  159-60 

Ecclesiastics,  children  of  {see  Children)  ; 
immorality  of  {see  Morals) 

Ecgberht  (King)  and  St.  Boniface,  i.  146 

Ecgberht  of  York,  condemns  priestly 
irregularities,  i.  187 ;  appealed  to  by 
Bede,  i.  188 

Eck,  Dr.  John,  views  of,  on  clerical 
celibacy,  i.  15  ;  confers  with  Melanch- 
thon,  ii.  72 

Ecuador,  ecclesiastical  property  secular- 
ised in,  ii.  339 

Edgar  the  Pacific,  remorse  of,  i.  192-3  ; 
St.  Dunstan's  condition  for  absolution 
of,  i.  193  ;  charter  of  "  Oswald's  Law  " 
by,  i.  195 ;  purifies  many  religious 
houses,  i.  195-6 ;  restores  obsolete 
discipline,  i.  196  ;  charter  of  last  year 
of  reign  of,  i.  196 

Edict  of  Faith,  "solicitation"  in,  ii. 
259,  270 

Edict  of  Pacification,  ii.  153 

Edict  of  Rousillon,  ii.  153 

Edinburgh,  Council  of,  ii.  159,  note  ;  ap- 
points a  commission,  ii.  160 

Edith,  wife  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
anecdote  of,  i.  205 

Edmund  I.,  laws  of,  regarding  clerical 
immorality,  i.  191 

Education,  Ferry  laws  on,  ii.  338 

Edward  and  Guthrun  on  clerical  immo- 
rality, i.  191 

Edward  the  Martyr  supports  Dunstan, 
i.  197 

Edward,  Bishop  of  Scaren,  i.  338 


Edward  VI.,  robbing  of  monasteries 
under,  ii.  101,  note  ;  succeeds  to  throne, 
ii.  116  ;  funeral  of,  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  ii.  123  ;  mortuary  Mass  for,  in 
presence  of  Queen  Mary,  ii.  123 
Eggard  of  Sleswick,  attempts  to  reform 
clergy,  ii.  20  ;  forced  to  abandon  see, 
ii.  20 
Egypt,  purity  demanded   of   priests  in, 

i.  42  ;  neglect  of  celibacy  in,  i.  90 
Egyptian    monasteries,    commencement 

of,  i.  109 
Eldora,     Lorenzo     de,     condemned     to 

galleys,  ii.  289 
Elect,  Manichtaan,  i.  37 
Election    of    Pope    limited    to    Roman 

clergy,  i.  235 
Eleuchadio,  Abbot  of  Fiano,   son  of  a 

priest,  i.  209 
Elthere,  Ealdorman  of  Mercia,  supports 

married  priests,  i.  197 
Elfritha,  intrigues  against  Edward,  i.  197; 
seeks  alliance  of  secular  clergy,  i.  198 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  number  of  bishops  de- 
prived under,  ii.  126  ;  allows  no  innova- 
tions till  Parliament  assembles,  ii.  136  ; 
repeals  Mary's  legislation,  ii.  136  ;  dis- 
like of,  for  marriage  of  clergy,  ii.  138  ; 
insolence  of,  to  Archbishop  Parker's 
wife,  ii.  141 
Elna,  Council  of,  in  1027,  i.  370 
Elphege  of  Winchester  and  St.  Dunstan, 

i.  192 
Elvira,  Council  of,  in  305,  on  digami,  i. 

25 
Emanuel,  King,  and  marriage   of  mili- 
tary orders,  i.  455 
Emancipation  of  nuns  in  1523,  ii.  50 
Emancipatore  Cattolica,  ii.  333 
Embden,  Count  of,  promotes  marriage  of 

nuns,  ii.  64 
Emmo  of  Wittewerum  on  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  303-4 
Empire,  Roman,  licentiousness  under,  i. 

18 
Empire,  Second  (French),  fall  of,  ii.  338 
Emser,  Jerome,  epithalamium  on  Luther, 

ii.  52,  note 
Encomium  Morise,  ii.  36-37,  note  ;  on  first 

Index  Expurgatorius,  ii.  37,  note 
Encratians,  heresy  of,  i.  34 
Encyclical  letters  (Leo.  XIII.)  on  civil 

marriage,  ii.  332 
Encyclical,  papal,    Mirari  vos,  ii.  325  ; 

Qui  pluribus,  ii.  325 
Enforcement  of  celibacy,  in  fourth  cen- 
tury, i.  66-86  ;  by  Gregory  I.  i.  138  ; 
in  eighth  century,  i.  148  ;  attributed 
to  Gregory  VII.,  i.  266  ;  difficulties 
attending,  i.  271-3  ;  in  twelfth  century, 
i.  291  ;  in  Bohemia,  i.  293-4  ;  in  Ger- 
many, i.  294 ;  in  Hungary,  i.  297  ;  in 
Poland,  i.  300-1  ;  in  Sweden,  i.  302  ;  in 
Denmark,  i.  303;  in  Friesland,  i.  304;  in 


380 


INDEX 


France,  306  ;  in  Normandy,  i.  308  ;  in 
Flanders,  i.  313  ;  by  Calixtus  II.  i.  323; 
modified  by  Lanfranc,  i.  330  ;  by  Henry 
I.  of  England,  i.  340  ;  in  Ireland,  i. 
364  ;  in  Scotland,  i.  367-8 ;  in  Spain, 
delay  in,  i.  373  ;  continual  legislation 
for,  i.  412  ;  influence  of,  on  world  at 
large,  i.  430 ;  after  (Ecumenical 
Council,  Constance,  ii.  5-6  ;  in  series 
articles,  University  of  Oxford,  ii.  9  ; 
called  "  a  devellishe  thinge,"  ii.  104, 
Twte  ;  maintained  by  Henry  VIII.,  ii. 
103  ;  abandoned  under  Edward  VI.,  ii. 
117,  118;  maintained  under  Queen 
Mary,  ii.  134 ;  relaxed  under  Queen 
Elizabeth,  ii.  139  ;  new  ideas  on,  in 
Scotland,  ii.  162 ;  in  France  in  six- 
teenth century,  ii.  172 

Engelheim,  synod  of,  in  948,  i.  171 

England,  Anglo-Saxon  priests  corrupt  in, 
i.  183  ;  celibacy  at  first  enforced  in,  i. 
186  ;  sacerdotal  marriage  introduced 
in,  i.  191  ;  disorders  of,  in  tenth  cen- 
tury, i.  191  ;  reformation  attempted, 
i.  192  ;  fails,  i.  196  ;  Church  in,  under 
Cnut,  i.  201 ;  position  of  concubines  in, 
i.  201,  note ;  Edward  the  Confessor,  i. 
203 ;  Manichseism  in  twelfth  century 
in.  i.  245;  papal  collector  in,  bound  by 
oath  in  15 17,  ii.  39  ;  power  of  Pope  in, 
abolished  by  proclamation,  ii.  85  ;  visi- 
tation of  monastic  houses  in,  ii.  87  ; 
assault  on  monasteries,  in  Beggars' 
Petition,  ii.  90  ;  acknowledgment  of 
papal  authority  a  crime  in,  ii.  95  ;  re- 
conciled to  Eome,  ii.  129  ;  wives  of 
Elizabethan  clergy  in,  ii.  145-6  ;  mar- 
riage established  by  connivance  rather 
than  as  a  right,  ii.  149 

Enham,  Council  of,  in  1009,  i.  200 

Eon  de  I'Etoile,  i.  465 

Epaone,  Council  of,  in  513,  i.  57,  note  ; 
517,  i.  84,  note 

Epiphanius,  on  self -mortification,  i. 
20,  note ;  on  Ebionites,  i.  21  ;  declares 
Church  based  on  virginity,  i.  39  ;  on 
agapetae,  i.  48  ;  stigmatises  Antidico- 
marianitarians,  i.  68  ;  compiles  "  Pana- 
rium,"  i.  89  ;  asceticism  of,  i.  89 

Episcopissa,  i.  175 

Epistolfe  Obscurorum  Virorum,  ii.  37 

Erasmus,  on  religious  immorality,  i.  444, 
note ;  relation  of,  to  the  Eeformation, 
ii.  35  ;  on  purgatory,  ii.  35 ;  on  indul- 
gences, ii.  40,  note 

Erchenbald  on  infanticide,  i.  156 

Erfurt,  synod  of,  in  1074,  i.  274 

Eriberto  of  Milan,  episcopate  of,  i.  245  ; 
reported  marriage  of,  improbable,  i. 
245,  note 

Erlembaldo,  St.,  popular  chief,  at  Milan, 
i.  246  ;  becomes  leader  of  Paterins,  i. 
254  ;  seeks  fresh  cause  of  quarrel  with 
Guide,  i.  257  ;  mortally  WQunded,i.  269 


Ermeland,  synod  of,  in  1497,  ii.  20,  note 
Ernest  of  Magdeburg,  cynicism  of,  ii.  14 
Ernest  of  Salzburg,  ii.  190 
Erskine,  Lord,  refuses  to  sign  Book  of 

Discipline,  ii.  164 
D'Espeisses,  President,  on  Italian  morals, 

ii.  229 
D'Espense,  Claude,  on  perpetual  virginity 

of  the  Virgin,  i.   69,  note ;  on  clerical 

morality,  ii.  239 
Espontaneado,  or  self-denunciation,  ii. 

291,  293 
Essenes,  asceticism  of,  i.  9  ;    John  the 

Baptist  belonged  to,  i.   10;  probably 

James  of  Jerusalem  belonged  to,  i.  10 
Ethelbald  of  Mercia,  epistle  of  St.  Boni- 
face to,  i.  156 
Ethelred  the  Unready  and  incursions  of 

Danes,  i.  198 
Ethelwold,  St. ,  austerity  and  zeal  of,  i. 

194  ;  legend  concerning,  i.  194 
Eucharist,  adopted  by  Manes  in  Mazdean 

form,  i,  35  ;  ordeal  of  the,  i.  356 
Eucherius,  St.,  vision  of,  i.  146 
Eugenius  II.  on  concubinage,  i.  230,  wofe 
Eugenius    III.,    dissolves     marriage    of 

priests,    i.    388-9  ;    is  warned    by  St. 

Bernard,    i.    430;    convicts    Eon    de 

I'Etoile,  i.  466 
Eugeuius   IV.   releases   Order   of   Cala- 

trava  from  obligation  of  celibacy,  i.454; 

dissolves  Council  of  Bale,  ii.  10 
Eulalius  condemns  his  son  Eustathius,  i. 

58 
Euphronius  of  Autun,  i.  82 
Euphronius  of  Tours,  i.  132,  note 
Euron  Abbey,  i.  318 
Eusebius  condemns  priestly  marriage,  i. 

44 
Eustathius,    Bishop,  horror    of  priestly 

marriage,  i.  57-8 
Eutyches,  career  of,  i.  118 
Eutychian  controversies,  i.  118 
Evangelical  doctor,  Wickcliffe  the,  i.  477, 

note 
Evenus,  of  St.  Melanius,  i.  311 
Evreux,  synod  of,  in  1576,  ii.  240  ;  Bishop 

Lindet  of,  publicly  married,  ii.  310 
Excalceati,  heresy  of,  i.  20 
Exile,  punishment  of,  for  "  solicitation," 

ii.  286,  note,  290 
Expilly,   Abbe,   on    number  of    French 

ecclesiastics,  ii.  313,  note 
Expulsion  of,  monks  for  disobedience  or 

diocontent  i.  Ill 
Exuperius,     St.,     inclined     to     favour 

Vigilantius,  i.  72 

Fah-Hian  finds  thousands  of  Buddhist 
monasteries  in  Ceylon,  i.  103 

Fail,  Du,  ii.  241,  note 

Faith,  celibacy  as  a  matter  of,  ii.  172  ; 
priestly  marriage  not  held  to  be  point 
of,  ii.  140 


INDEX 


381 


Faith,  Edict  of,  ii.  259,  270 
False  decretals  on  clerical  chastity,  i.  154 
Faricius  of  Abingdon,  case  of,  i.  269,  note 
Farley,  Archbishop  of  New  York,  ii.  277, 

note 
Fasting  in  penance,  i.  184 ;  severe,  for 

case  of  "  solicitation,"  ii.  289 
Fauchet  of  Bayeux,  ii.  314 
Faustinus  on  separation  from  wives,  i.  76 
Faustus  the  Manichaean,  i.  37 
Fecamp  reformed  by  Richard  the  Fear- 
less, i.  179,  note 
Feini  civilised,   prior    to    times  of   St. 

Patrick,  i.  360 
Felix  of  Nantes.,  story  of,  i.  133 
Fellows  of  universities,  celibacy  of,  ii. 

143 
Felony,   priestly  marriage  is,   in    "  Six 

Articles,"  ii.  112 
Fenelon,  lofty  piety  of,  ii.  242 ;  on  priestly 

"  solicitation,"  ii.  279 
Ferdinand,  Archduke,   zeal  of,  ii.  225, 

note 
Ferdinand,  Emperor,  asks  for  cup  for 

laity,  i.  480  ;  demands  General  Council, 

ii.  49  ;  tolerates  Protestantism,  ii.  69  ; 

on   German    monasteries,   ii.   89 ;    on 

clerical   immorality,    ii.    178,    191-2 ; 

asks  for  clerical  marriage,  ii.  195-6  ; 

demands  of,  at  Council  of  Trent,  ii. 

199 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon  supports  Ximenes, 

ii.  21 
Ferdinand  IV.  of  Naples,  reforms  of,  ii. 

299  ;  enacts  civil  marriage,  ii.  333-4, 

note 
Fergusson,  David,  MSS.  of,  on  Mexican 

clerical  irregularities,  ii.  254,  note 
Ferrers,    Alexander,  speaks    plainly    of 

priests,  ii.  156  ;  plain  speaking  of,  con- 
strued as  heresy,  ii.  157 
Ferry  laws  on  education,  ii.  338 
Ferry  of   Orleans,   murder  of,  and  its 

cause,  i.  414 
Feudal  system,  independence  of,  i.  212  ; 

tenure  of,  by  chastity,  i,  176 
Fifteenth  century,  the,  ii.  1-30 
Fiscal  prosecuting  officer,  ii.  250 
Fischer,  Frederick,  punished  for  marry- 
ing, ii.  49 
Fish,  Simon,  Beggars'  Petition  said  to 

be  written  by,  ii.  91,  note 
Fishponds,  absurd  stories  of  bodies   of 

children  in,  i,  139 
Flagellantes,  prosecuted  by  Inquisition, 

ii.  279 
Flagellation,  opportunities  given  by,  for 

indecency,  ii.  278 
Flamen  Dialis,  second  marriage  forbidden 

to,  i.  24 
Flanders,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i. 

312  ;  case  of  Bossaert  d'Avesnes  in,  i. 

398-9  ;   character  of  post-Tridentine 
.  Church  of,  ii.  236 


Florence,  synod  of,  in  1057,  i.  224  ;  Coun- 
cil of,  in  1573,  ii.  230  ;  congregation  of , 
in  1787,  ii.  304 

Focaria,  term  of,  first  introduced,  i.  344 

Foix,  Cardinal  de,  papal  legate,  i.  384 

Fontaneto,  Council  of  (1058),  on  priestly 
marriage,  i.  250 

Fontevraud,  nuns  of,  i.  343 

Forcheim,  Diet  of,  in  1077,  i-  282 

Formal  vow  dissolves  marriage,  i.  386, 
396 

Forster,  Andreas,  defends  celibacy,  ii. 
299 

Fortescue,  Sir  John,  on  case  of  married 
priest,  i,  393 

Foulques  of  Rheims  consulted  on  clerical 
marriage,  i.  162 

Fox,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  ii.  81 

France,  celibacy  introduced  in,  i.  62  ; 
difficulty  in  enforcing  celibacy  in,  i.  78 ; 
popular  support  of  celibacy  in,  i.  79  ; 
constant  efforts  to  enforce  celibacy  in, 
i.  83  ;  morals  of,  in  fifth  century,  i.  84  ; 
monasticism  in  seventh  century  in, 
i.  128 ;  state  of  Church  in,  under 
Merovingians,  i.  132  ;  in  eighth  cen- 
tury, i.  143  ;  in  ninth  century,  i.  153  ; 
in  tenth  century,  i.  167,  177  ;  Council 
of  Bourges  in  103 1,  i.  207  ;  of  Rheims 
in  1049,  i.  221 ;  heresies  in,  of  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries,  i.  244  ;  celibacy 
again  enforced  in,  i.  306  ;  Council  of 
Paris,  i.  307  ;  immorality  of  clergy  in, 
not  exceptional,  i.  412  ;  Council  of 
Paris  (1521)  describes  monastic  life 
in,  ii.  89 ;  effort  of  Church  in,  to 
check  Lutheranism,  ii.  172 ;  willing- 
ness in,  to  see  celibacy  abolished,  ii. 
197  ;  Bishop  of,  suggests  old  men  for 
priesthood,  ii.  197 ;  depraved  clerical 
morals  in  sixteenth  century,  ii.  241  ; 
bull  on  "  solicitation  "  not  accepted 
in,  iL  265  ;  spasmodic  attempts  in,  to 
regulate  Church,  ii.  302  ;  question  of 
priestly  marriage  during  Revolution,ii. 
301,  307  ;  Church  property  in,  ii.  306-7; 
cruelty  to  priests  in,  under  Reign  of 
Terror,  ii.  308 ;  estimates  of  num- 
ber of  ecclesiastics  in,  ii.  313,  note ; 
marriage  of  clergy  in,  under  Concordat, 
ii.  316 ;  Napoleon  decides  against 
priestly  marriage  in,  ii.  320 ;  civil 
marriage  in,  ii.  330  ;  bishops  on  women 
residents  in  priests'  houses  in,  ii.  349 

Francis  Joseph,  Emperor,  and  Leo  XIII., 
i.  458 

Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi,  on  unquestioning 
obedience,  i.  113,  note  ;  annual  visits 
of,  to  purgatory,  i.  415 

Francis  I.,  favours  League  of  Schmal- 
kalden,  ii.  69 ;  Melanchthon  submits 
Articles  to,  ii.  70 

Francis  II.  marries  Mary  Queen  of  Scots, 
ii.  159 


382 


INDEX 


Franciscan,  a,  turns  Wickliffite,  i.  438 

PVanciscans,  contend  with  Benedictines, 
i.  415 ;  legends  of,  i.  415 ;  Order 
called  "  Seraphic,"  i.  438  ;  of  Cochin 
China,  exemptions  asked  for,  ii.  275 

"Frater  Fecisti,"  ii.,  242,  note 

Fredegonda,  contentions  inflamed  by,  i, 
141 

Frederic  of  Lorraine  becomes  Pope 
Stephen  IX.,  i.  225 

Frederic  Barbarossa,  strives  with  Alex- 
ander III.,  i.  393 ;  visits  Fulda,  ii.  23, 
note 

Frederic  II.,  on  Milanese  heresies,  i.  249, 
note;  on  children  of  ecclesiastics,  i. 
399  ;  Neapolitan  code  of,  i.  416 

Frederic  of  Saxony,  eludes  question  of 
clerical  marriage,  ii.  42  ;  married  pastor 
seeks  preferment  from,  ii.  46  ;  sponsor 
for  Pastor  Gunther's  child,  ii.  47 

Frederic,  King  of  Denmark,  and  Albert 
of  Brandenburg,  ii.  63 

Frediswood,  St.,  priory  of,  suppressed, 
ii.  82 

Frere,  Mr.,  on  clergy  deprived  under 
Queen  Mary,  ii.  128 

Fressanges,  Mile.,  case  of,  ii.  323 

Freysingen,  Council  of,  ii.  13  ;  Pius  V. 
addresses  abbots  and  priors  of,  ii.  58, 
note 

Friars,  preaching,  support  Queen  Kath- 
arine, ii.  84 

Fricius  disputes  with  Orzechowski,  ii. 
209,  note 

Frideswide,  St.,  treatment  of  remains  of, 
ii.  132,  note 

Fringe,  John,  married  priest  in  England, 
case  of,  i.  393 

Froude,  on  systematic  immorality  of 
priests,  ii.  16-17,  note ;  on  Ap  Eice 
and  Thomas  Cromwell,  ii.  105,  note 

Fulbert  of  Chartres  on  military  bishops, 
i.  175,  note 

Fulbert  of  Paris  and  Heloise,  i.  324 

Fulda,  Abbey  of,  strict  rule  of,  ii.  23, 
note 

Future  life,  doctrine  of,  not  held  by  Jews, 
i.  4 ;  derived  from  Chaldean  and 
Mazdean  sources,  i.  8 

Gagaein,   Father,    on    "  The    Eussian 

Clergy,"  i.  98,  note 
Galicia,  Council  of,  in  thirteenth  century, 

i.  377 
Gall,  St.,  severe  asceticism  of,  i.  141-2 
Galleys,  Lorenzo  de  Eldora  condemned 

to,  ii.  289 
Galli,  castration  of,  i.  42 
Galilean  Church  {see  France) 
Gallicanism,   Ultramontanism  triumphs 

over,  ii.  363 
Gangra,  provincial  Council  of,  i.  58 
Ganoczy,  Archdeacon,  Henke  dedicates 

book  to,  ii  300 


Gardiner,  Bishop,  celebrates  mortuary 
mass  for  Edward  VI  ,  ii.  123  ;  sits  in 
judgment  on  married  bishops,  ii.  125  ; 
scandals  concerning,  ii.  135 

Garendon,  monastery  of,  ii,  88 

Gasquet,  **  Henry  VIII.  and  the  English 
Monasteries,"  ii.  89,  note  ;  pious  and 
laborious  rehabilitation  of  monasteries, 
ii.  89  ;  on  Beggars'  Petition,  ii.  91,  note 

Gaudin,  Abbe,  defends  priestly  marriage, 
ii.  299  ;  represents  La  Vendee  in 
Assembly  ii.  310  ;  "  Avis  k  mon  fils, 
ag^  de  sept  ans,"  ii.  310 

Gaulo  of  Paris,  i.  317 

Gauthier  de  Chatillon,  i.  346 

Gauthier,  St.,  de  Pontoise,  i.  307 

Gazewaska,  Baroness,  marries  Dean 
Suczinsky,  who  becomes  "  Old  Catho- 
lic," ii.  329 

Gea-Eurysternus,  priestesses  of,  to  be 
celibate,  i.  42 

Gebhardt  of  Constance,  election  of,  i. 
272 

Gebhardt  of  Eichstedt,  created  Pope  as 
Victor  II.,  i.  215 ;  legend  of  miracle 
concerning,  i.  224 

Gebhardt  of  Eatisbon  urges  claims  of 
Archpriest  Cuno,  son  of  a  priest,  i. 
215 

Gebhardt  of  Salzburg  ordered  to  enforce 
celibacy,  i.  269 

Geddes,  Dr.,  on  apostolic  origin  of  celi- 
bacy, ii.  301 

Gelasius,  St.,  Pope,  on  second  marriages, 
i,  24  ;  on  marriage  of  nuns,  123 

Gelasius  of  Cyzicus  on  Paphnutius,  i.  52 

Gemma  Ecclesiastica,  i.  403,  435,  note 

Genebaldus  of  Laon,  story  of  marriage 
and  penance  of,  i.  132-3 

Geoffrey  Boussard,  tract  of,  i.  15,  ii.  27 

Geoffrey  of  Chartres  fails  in  reforms,  i. 
319 

Geoffrey  of  Llanthony,  case  of,  i.  269, 
note 

Geoffrey  of  Eouen  enforces  celibacy,  i. 
323-4 

Gerard  of  Angouleme,  i.  325 

Gerard  of  Florence  made  Pope,  i.  225 

Gerard  of  Lorsch  interrogates  Leo.  VII., 
i.  169 

Gerard  of  Munster  assists  deans  of  Fries- 
land,  i.  304 

Gerard  of  Nimeguen  on  clerical  morality, 
ii.  56 

Gerard  of  Sabina,  reforms  of,  i.  420 

Gerbert  of  Aurillac,  afterwards  Pope 
Silvester  II.,  i.  181 ;  pays  little  atten- 
tion to  incontinence,  i.  181-2 

Germany,  virtue  of  Teutonic  tribes  of,  i. 
86  ;  reforms  in,  attempted  by  Carlo- 
man,  i.  144  ;  condition  of  Church  in 
tenth  century,  i.  169;  Council  of 
Mainz  in  1049,  i.  220 ;  heresies  in 
eleventh    and    twelfth    centuries,    i. 


INDEX 


383 


244-5 ;  enforcement  of  celibacy  by 
Gregory  VII.  in,  i.  274  ;  princes  of,  in- 
trigue against  Gregory  VII. ,  i.  278  ; 
papalists  in,  called  Paterini,  i.  283  ;  re- 
bellion of  Henry  v.,  i.  291  ;  supremacy 
of  papacy  established  in,  i.  291  ; 
Geroch  of  Reichersperg^on  heresies  in, 
i.  392  ;  hereditary  tr'ansmission  of 
benefices  in,  i.  404  ;  children  of  eccle- 
siastics in  thirteenth  century,  i.  416  ; 
children  of  ecclesiastics,  testamentary 
provisions  for,  i.  418  ;  state  of  mona- 
chism  in  fifteenth  century,  i.  422  ; 
Marian  or  Teutonic  Order  founded,  i. 
457;  I  Waldensian  heresy  in,  i.  460  ; 
Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit  in,  i.  469  ; 
Inquisition  in,  i.  470;  Cardinal 
Branda's  crusade  against  Hussites,  ii. 
7  ;  Pope's  letters-patent  prove  de- 
pravity in,  ii.  7  ;  synod  of  Ermeland 
scandalised  by  immorality  in,  ii.  20, 
note  ;  signs  of  coming  Reformation  in, 
ii.  32  ;  Leo  X.  appeals  for  tithe  for 
war  from,  ii.  38  ;  reformed  doctrines 
take  hold  of,  ii.  53  :  contest  of  two 
parties  at  Augsburg,  ii.  64-5  ;  Confes- 
sion of  Augsburg,  ii.  65  ;  Anabaptists 
in,  ii.  68  ;  negotiations  with  Henry 
VIII.,  ii.  109  ;  suggestions  to  leave 
with  Pope  decision  of  question  of 
marriage,  ii.  110  ;  Lutherans  not  con- 
nected with  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  180  ; 
Lutheranism  under  heel  of  Charles  V., 
ii.  181  ;  scarcity  of  priests  in,  ii.  197, 
note  ;  ill  fitted  to  deal  with  Italy  in 
diplomacy,  ii.  202  ;  Lutherans  tri- 
umphant on  accession  of  Pius  V.,  ii. 
218  ;  Francisco  di  Cordova  on  suc- 
cessful Lutheranism,  ii.  224  ;  bull  on 
"solicitation"  not  published  in,  ii. 
265  ;  "  Old. Catholic  "  movement  in,  ii. 
329  ;  bishoprics  and  monastic  founda- 
tions secularised,  ii.  335  ;  exclusion  of 
women  from  priests'  houses  proposed 
in,  ii.  349 

Geroch  of  Reichersperg,  on  sacraments  of 
sinful  priests,  i.  229,  note  ;  on  Nicolitan 
and  Simoniacal  heretics,  i.  392 

Geronda,  Council  of,  in  517,  i.  84,  note  ; 
1068,  i.  371 ;  1078,  i.  371  ,  1257,  i.  380 

Gerdnimo  de  Mendieta,  ii.  248 

Gerson,  on  introduction  of  celibacy,  i. 
14, 440  ;  on  abuse  of  confessional,  i.  436, 
note  ;  stigmatises  nunneries,  ii.  1  ;  on 
concubinage,  ii.  2  ;  answers  Zabarella, 
ii.  25 

Geruntius  (King)  addressed  by  St.  Aid- 
helm,  i.  188 

Gervilius  of  Mainz  and  St.  Boniface,  i. 
146 

Gervinus  of  St.  Riquier,  anecdote  of,  i.  205 

Ghaerbald  of  Liege,  canons  of,  i.  153 

Gherardo  Segarelli,  heresiarch,  i,  471  : 
burned  in  1300,  i.  471 


Ghiberti,  Matteo,  reforming  Bishop  of 
Verona,  ii.  254 

Gieus,  Li,  de  Robin  et  de  Marion,  i.  438, 
note 

Gilbert,  Bishop,  papal  legate  in  Ireland, 
i.  361 

Gilbert  of  Chichester  on  abuse  of  con- 
fessional, i.  435,  note 

Gilbert  de  la  Porree,  teaching  of,  con- 
demned, i.  388 

Gildas  describes  British  clergy  as  cor- 
rupt, i.  183 

Giles  Cantor,  heresy  of,  i.  470 

Giovanni  Gaulberto,  St.,  life  of,  as  an- 
chorite, i.  213 

Giraldus  Cambrensis,  on  apostolic 
warrant  for  celibacy,  i.  14  ;  Gemma 
Ecclesiastica  by,  i.  220,  note  ;  dispute 
over  election  to  St.  David's,  i.  344 : 
death,  about  1220,  i.  347  ;  comments 
on  Church  matters  in  Wales,  i,  358  ; 
exhortations  in  Gemma  Ecclesiastica, 
i.  403 

Giuliano  Csesarini,  Cardinal,  ii,  10 

Glastonbury,  abbey  of,  i.  193 

Glossator,  the,  on  scandal,  ii.  351 

Gloucester,  Augustinians  of,  suppressed, 
ii.  96  ;  see  of,  created,  ii.  100 

Gnesen,  clerical  marriage  in,  i,  301  ; 
synod  of,  in  1577,  ii,  233 

Gnostics,  heresy  of,  i.  20 

Gobat,  Father,  on  papal  decrees,  ii. 
266 

Gobel,  Bishop  of  Paris,  favours  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  314  ;  opposed  by  Gregoire 
of  Blois,  ii.  320-1,  note 

Godsons  of  bishops,  wer-gild  for,  i.  186 

Godstow,  last  of  English  abbeys,  ii.  99 

Golias  Episcopus,  i.  339,  note 

Gomorrhianus,  Liber,  i.  219,  note 

Gonzalez,  Fray  Vicente,  accused  by  nun, 
ii.  269 

Gonzalez,  Geronimo,  case  of  solicitation 
by,  ii.  291 

Goodacre,  Anne,  ii.  170 

Gostar,  Manichaeism  at,  in  1052,  i.  244 

Gotefrido,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  i.  257 ; 
defence  against  Erlembardo,  i.  258 

Gotfrid  of  Wurzburg,  will  of,  i.  418 

Goths,  Spanish,  immorality  of,  i.  135 

Grace  Dieu,  monastery  of,  ii.  88 

Grace,  Pilgrimage  of,  ii.  94 

Graffiis  on  abuse  of  confessional,  ii.  252 

Gran,  synod  of,  in  1099,  by  Primate 
Seraphin,  i.  297  ;  in  1450  and  1480, 
ii.  19 

Granada,  New,  suppression  of  monas- 
teries in,  ii.  339 

Granada,  Pedro  Guerrero,  reforming 
Archbishop  of,  ii.  257 

Grand,  Madame,  and  Talleyrand,  ii.  318 

Grandier,  Urbain,  on  priestly  marriage, 
ii.  297,  note ;  tried  for  sorcery,  ii,  297, 
note 


384 


INDEX 


Gratian,  on  celibacy,  i.  13  ;  on  dissolution 

of  priestly  marriage,  i.  390-1 
Gratien,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  on  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  314 

Greek  Church,  characteristics  lead  to 
schism,  i.  87-8  ;  rules  as  to  celibacy, 
i.  88  ;  residence  of  suspected  women 
forbidden  in,  i.  97  ;  Swedes  regarded 
as  schismatics  of,  i.  302  ;  efforts  of 
Council  of  Lyons  to  reunite,  i.  407  ; 
Stanislas  Hosius  of  Ermeland  on 
customs  of,  ii.  192 

Gregoire  of  Blois,  on  repudiated  clergy, 
ii.  315  ;  "  Histoire  du  mariage  des 
Pretres  en  France,"  ii.  320,  note; 
opposes  Gobel,  ii.  321,  note 

Gregory,  St.  Theologus,  Bishop  Nazian- 
zum,  i.  53  ;  son  of  a  married  ecclesi- 
astic, i.  53 

Gregory  the  Great,  declaration  on 
monastic  life  and  marriage,  i.  39 ; 
monastic  reforms  by,  i.  126-7  ;  states- 
manship of,  i.  137 :  enforcement  of 
celibacy  by,  1.  138 ;  conversion  of 
England,  i.  185,  186  ;  story  related  by, 
i.  434,  note 

Gregory  II. ,  condemns  marriages  of  nuns, 
i.l42;appealedtobySt.  Boniface, i.  143 

Gregory  VI.,  miracle  at  death  causes 
papal  funeral  honours,  i.  219,  note 

Gregory  VII.,  discredits  story  of  Paph- 
nutius,  i.  51  ;  causes  its  condemnation 
at  Roman  synod,  i.  51 ;  refuses  ordina- 
tion to  illegitimates,  i.  242,  note  ;  ex- 
communicated by  disaffected  bishops, 
1.  259  ;  urges  Erlembaldo  to  persevere, 
i.  260 ;  early  life  of,  i.  264 ;  wild 
dreams  of  ecclesiastical  supremacy, 
i.  264  ;  persistent  advocate  of  celibacy, 
i  267 ;  stories  of,  i.  268-9  ;  renews 
legislation  of  Nicholas  II.,  i.  269  ;  en- 
forces celibacy  on  Siegfrid  of  Mainz, 
i.  275 ;  authorises  laity  to  disown 
incontinent  priests,  i.  276-7  ;  opposed 
by  German  princes,  i.  278 ;  called 
"  praeceptor  impossibilium,"  i.  296 

Gregory  VIII.  prevents  abolition  of 
celibacy,  ii.  402 

Gregory  IX.  and  Swedish  priests,  i.  302 

Gregory  X.  on  corrupting  influence  of 
prelates,  i.  436 

Gregory  XIII.  complains  of  marriage  of 
priests,  ii.  231 ;  savage  decrees  on 
false  confessors,  ii.  256 

Gregory  XV.  on  abuse  of  confessional, 
ii.  264  ;  bull  of  Benedict  XIV.,  copies 
definitions  of,  ii.  267 

Gregory  XVI.,  encyclical,  "Mirari  vos," 
on  priestly  marriage,  ii.  325 

Gregory,  St.,  of  Nazianzum  on  priestly 
marriage,  i.  53 

Gregory  of  Tours,  on  nomination  of 
bishops,  i.  132,  note ;  on  enforcement 
of  celibacy,  i.  134,  note 


Gregory  of  Vercelli  convicted  of  incest, 
i.  222 

Greyfriars  of  Perth,  Knox  reports  as 
luxurious,  ii.  165 

Grillandus,  Papal  Vicar,  Rome,  reports 
case,  ii,  58-9 

Grindal,  Archbishop,  Elizabeth's  dislike 
of  sermons  expressed  to,  ii.  141,  note  ; 
on  residence  of  women  with  clergy, 
ii.  145  ;  on  position  of  married  clergy, 
ii.  147 

Grosseteste,  Robert,  of  Lincoln,  supports 
regularity,  while  opposing  papal  en- 
croachment, i.  356 ;  inveighs  against 
corruption  of  papal  court,  i.  425 

Guala,  Cardinal,  constitutions  of,  i.  410 

Guarino  of  Modena  requires  oath  of 
chastity,  i.  176 

Guastalla,  Council  of,  in  i  io6,  i.  292 

Guerrero,  Pedro,  reforming  Bishop  of 
Granada,  ii.  257 

Guibert  de  Nogent,  case  of,  i.  316 

Guiberto  of  Ravenna,  on  concubinage,  i. 
284  ;  driven  out  of  Rome,  i.  285 

Guide,  Cardinal,  enforces  celibacy  in 
Austria,  i.  300  ;  in  Denmark,  i.  303 

Guide  di  Valate,  made  Archbishop  of 
Milan,  i.  246  ;  swears  to  destroy  Si- 
moniacal  heresy,  i.  252 ;  imposes 
penitence  on  himself,  i.  252  ;  is  ex- 
communicated, i.  255  ;  expelled  from 
Milan,  i.  256 ;  resigns  archbishopric, 
i.  257 

Guilielmus  Appulus  on  Nicholas  II.,  i. 
232,  note 

Gunther,  Pastor,  Elector  Frederic  spon- 
sor for  child  of,  ii.  47 

Gunzo  Grammaticus,  i.  169,  note 

Guthrun  on  clerical  immorality,  i.  191 

Haarlem,  synod  of,  in   1564,  ii.   231, 

note 
Habit,  monastic,  efficacy  of,  i.  415 
Hainscheidt,  ancient  monastery  of,  ii.  64 
Hali  Meidenhad,  i.  348,  note 
Hamburg,  reforms  at,  i.  221  ;  Council  of, 

in  1406,  i.  415,  note 
Hamerer,  Dr.,  on  clerical  corruption,  ii. 

236 
Hamilton,  Patrick,  Scottish  proto-martyr, 

ii.  162,  note 
Hamilton,  Catherine,  escape  of,  i.  162, 

note 
Hamilton,  Archbishop,  licentiousness  of, 

ii.  158 
Hanno  of  Cologne  earns  canonisation,  i. 

237 
Hardouin   of  Anger   condemns   clerical 

immorality,  ii.  8 
Heads  of  colleges,  position  of  wives  of, 

ii.  146 
Heisterbach,  Caesarius  of,   on  influence 

of    priesthood,    i.    431  ;     on    priestly 

"solicitation,"  ii.  276 


INDEX 


385 


Helena,  Queen   of    Adiabene,    Nazirate 

vow  of,  i.  6 
Heliodorus  of  Trica,  rigorous  asceticism 

of,  i.  91' 
Helisacar,  Abbot,  ii.  23,  note 
H^loise,  reforms  convent,  i.  319  ;  mar- 
riage of,  i.  324 

Helsen,  Abb§,  on  women  resident  in 
priests'  houses,  ii.  346,  note 

Helvidius,  heresy  of,  i.  67,  note 

Henke,  edition  of  Calixtus,  ii.  300 

Henning,  Bishop,  ii.  20,  note 

Henrician  or  Petrobusian  heresy,  i.  463 

Henry  II.  (Emperor),  on  sons  of  priests, 
i.  178  ;  endeavours  to  enforce  celibacy, 
i.  206 

Henry  III.  (Emperor)  desires  Ohurch  re- 
form, i.  214  ;  appoints  Suidger  Pope 
Clement  II.,  i.  214  ;  conscientious 
labours,  of  for  papacy,  i.  226  ;  makes 
Bruno  of  Toul,  Pope,  i.  218  ;  President 
d'Espeisses  presents  memorial  to,  ii. 
229  ;  assembly  of  Melun  addresses,  ii. 
235 

Henry  III.,  Bishop  of  Li^ge,  his  sixty- 
five  children,  i.  417 

Henry  IV.  (Emperor),  accession  of,  as  an 
infant,  i.  224;  has  ofifer  of  golden  crown, 
and  title  of  Patrician,  i.  235  ;  appoints 
Tedaldo  Bishop  of  Milan,  i.  259  ;  volun- 
tary humiliation  of,  at  Canosa,  i.  259  ; 
expels  Altmann  of  Passau,  i.  273  ;  pro- 
tects simoniacal  and  married  priests,  i. 
283  ;  triumphs  over  the  Church,  i.  287; 
mission  of  two  legates  to,  i.  270,  note 

Henry  V.  (Emperor),  rebellion  of,  i.  291 

Henry  I.  (France)  attempts  to  enforce 
celibacy,  i.  207 

Henry  III.(France),edicts  of  pacification, 
ii.  153 

Henry  I.  (England)  confiscates  property 
of  priests,  i.  334  ;  summons  Council  in 
London,  i.  336  ;  enforces  regulations  of 
Council,  i.  337,  340 

Henry  V.  (England)  persecutes  Lollards, 
i.  476,  ii.  3  ;  attempts  reform,  ii.  9 

Henry  VIII.  (England)  favours  League  of 
Schmalkalden,  ii.  69  ;  confirms  incorpo- 
ration of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  ii.  83; 
miserable  quarrel  of,  with  Rome,  ii.  85; 
divorce  of.  from  Queen  Katharine,  ii. 
85;  supreme  head  of  Church  of  England, 
ii.  85;  enriches  Treasury  by  secularising 
Church  property,  ii.  86,  99  ;  excommu- 
nicated by  Paul  III.,  ii,  94  ;  opposes 
priestly  marriage,  ii.  103,  107  ;  title  of 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  ii.  103  ;  decides 
against  proposals  of  8chmalkaldic 
League,  ii.  109;  death  of,  ii.  116;  refuses 
connection  with  Councilof  Trent,  ii.  180 

Henry  of  Huntingdon,  i.  198,  note  ;  son 
of  a  priest,  i.  331,  note;  on  John  of 
Crema,  i.  339,  note  ;  on  system  of  "  cul- 
lagium,"  i.  340-41,  note 

VOL.  II. 


Henry  of  Norwich,  married  cleric  with 

legitimate  children,  i.  364 
Henry  the  Petrobusian,  i.  463,  464 
Henry  of  Ravenna  supports  anti-pope,  i. 

Henry  of  Salzburg,  i.  295,  note 

Henry  of  Speyer,  i.  278 

Hepburn,  Prior  Patrick,  immorality  of, 
ii.  156 

Hera,  compulsory  celibacy  for  priestesses 
of,  i,  43 

Heracles,  celibate  priestesses  of,  i.  43 

Heraudin  of  Chateauraux  on  priestly  mar- 
riage, ii.  314 

Hercules  (Gaditanian),  celibacy  of  priests 
for,  i.  42 

Hereditary  Levitical  priesthood,  i.  5 

Hereditary  tendency  in  Greek  Church,  i.  97 

Hereditary  transmission,  Gregory  VII. 
and  danger  of,  i.  267 

Hereditary  priesthood  allowed  by  Alex- 
ander IL,  i.  241-2 

Hereditary  transmission,  of  benefices  in 
Ireland,    i.    361  ;    Friesland,   i.    304 
Normandy,  i.  312  ;  in  bishopric  of  Toul 
i.320  ;    forbidden  at  Rheims,  i.  323 
condemned    by   Lucius     II.,    i.    341 
would  create  sacerdotal  caste,  i.  347 
Innocent  III.  forbids  in  Ireland,  i.  364 
claimed   under  Lucius    III.,   i.   397 , 
Coelestin  III.    upon,  i.    404 ;    Bishop 
Martin  of  Camin  on,  ii.  20  ;  in  fifteenth 
century,   ii.    21  ;  Clement  VII.   issues 
bull  on,  ii.  174  ;  Scottish  Queen  Regent 
petitioned  on,  ii.  174 

Heresies,  the,  i.  459-81  ;  a  device  for 
extirpating,  ii.  110,  note 

Heresy,  Thirty  Years'  War  bars  spread  of, 
ii.  237 

Heresy,  "vehement,"  culprit  to  abjure 
"de  vehementi,"ii.  280 

Heresy,  Lutheran,  justified  by  clerical 
corruption,  ii.  57,  171,  177,  190,  192, 
225 

Heretics,  outwardly  orthodox,  i.  460 

Herluca,  vision  of,  i.  281 

Herman  von  Wied  of  Cologne  attempts 
reform,  ii.  176-7 

Hermann,  Bishop  of  Prague,  i.  290 

Hermann  (King)  condemns  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  285 

Herraiz,  Fray  Manuel  Pablo,  self-accused 
of  "solicitation,"  ii.  293 

Heuser,  Rev.  H.  J.,  professor  of  theology, 
Overbrook,  ii.  277,  note 

Heydeck,  Baron,  marries  a  nun,  ii.  62 

High  Commission,  Court  of,  ii.  140,  note 

Hilarion  introduces  monachism  into 
Palestine,  i.  106,  note 

Hilary  of  Poitiers,  instance  of  a  married 
bishop,  ii.  42 

Hildebert  of  Le  Mans  tries  to  reform 
clergy,  i.  318  ;  poem  attributed  to,  i. 
349,  note 

2B 


386 


INDEX 


Hildebrand  the  Monk,  i.  218  ;  all-power- 
ful at  papal  court,  i.  230-1  ;  far  more 
shrewd  than  Damiani,  i.  240  ;  sent  on 
mission  to  Milan,  i.  251  ;  requires  sub- 
jection to  Rome,  i.  251 
(For  further  story,  see  Gregory  VII.) 

Hildebrandine  doctrine,  man  burned  at 
Cambrai  for  upholding,  i.  282 ;  slow 
progress  of,  i.  305  ;  revived  in  Catharan 
heresy,  i.  460  ;  "  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  " 
hold,'i.  468 

Hildebrandine  reforms  not  altogether 
successful,  i.  262 

Hilles,  Richard,  on  the  Six  Articles,  ii. 
115,  note 

Himerius  of  Tarragona  and  new  disci- 
pline of  celibacy,  i.  64 

Hincmar  of  Rheims  on  appellate  jurisdic- 
tion of  Rome,  i.  159,  430 

Hiouen  Thsang  describes  Buddhist  mon- 
asteries, i.  103 

Hippolytus  on  self- mortification,  i.  20, 
note 

Hippolytus  of  Portus  on  digami,  i.  25 

"  Historia  Tripartita  ''  contains  story  of 
Paphnutius,  i.  52 

Hof,  immorality  of  priests  in,  ii.  54-5 

HoUand,  "  Old  Catholic  "  movement  in, 
ii.  330 

Honorius  (Emperor),  forbids  "mulieres 
extranese,"  i.  49  ;  persecutes  Jovinian, 
i.  70  ;  edict  of,  in  420,  i.  79,  82 

Honorius  I.  addresses  Scottish  clergy, 
i.  185,  note 

Honorius  II.  (anti-pope),  i.  235 

Honorius  III.,  orders  enforcement  of 
laws,  i.  326  ;  denounces  laxity  in  Ire- 
land, i.  365  ;  approves  rules  of  Order 
of  Santiago,  i.  453 

Hooper,  Bishop,  on  effect  of  Six  Articles, 
ii.  116  ;  questions  by,  for  visitations, 
ii.  121 

Horn,  Bishop,  on  position  of  married 
clergy,  ii.  147 

Hosius,  Bishop,  on  celibacy,  ii.  192  ;  on 
communion  in  both  kinds,  ii.  215 

Hospitallers,  the,  i.  451  ;  suppressed  in 
England,  ii.  98 

Hostility  to  Church  in  fifteenth  century, 
ii.  9 

Hoya,  Johann  von,  Bishop  of  Osnabruck, 
ii.  224 

Hubert,  Abbot,  marriage  of,  i.  162 

Hugh,  Bishop  of  Die  {see  Hugh  of  Lyons), 
i.  308 

Hugh  of  Grenoble,  i.  269,  note 

Hugh  of  Lincoln,  anecdote  told  of,  i.  343 

Hugh  of  Lyons,  reproved  by  Gregory 
VII.,  i.  310  ;  efforts  by,  in  Brittany,  i. 
312 

Hugh,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  charactRr 
of,  i.  179  :  on  marriage  in  orders,  i.  392 

Hugo  of  Constance,  Zwingli's  demand 
on,  ii.  45 


Hugo  of  Silva   Candida  at   Council  of 

Geronda,  i.  371 
Hugo,  Cardinal,  speech  of,  at  Lyons,  i. 

424 
Huguenots,  priestly  marriage  among,  ii. 

151-2 
Hugues,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  and  Eon 

de  I'Etoile,  i.  465-6 
Humbert   of   Silva   Candida,  on    Greek 

errors,  i.  223  ;  arguments  used  by,  i. 

236,  note 
Humphrey,  Lawrence,   epigram  on  Dr. 

Richard  Smith,  ii.  119,  'note  ;  on  posi- 
tion of  married  clergy,  ii.  147 
Hungary,  introduction  of  celibacy  in,  i. 

297  ;  fines  exacted  by  Church  in,  ii. 

18  ;   some  priests  petition  diet  in,  ii. 

328 
Huss,    John,    on    sacraments    of    sinful 

priests,  i.  230,  note ;  heresy  of,  i.  460  ; 

reformer  rather  than  heresiarch,  i.  477 
Hussites,  negotiations  with,  in  Magde- 
burg, Passau,  and  Bamberg,  ii.  11 
Hyacinthe,  Pere,  marriage  of,  ii.  324 
Hyde,   Council  of,  miraculous  mandate 

by  crucifix  at,  i.  197 
Hydroparastitse  heresy,  i.  34 
Hypatia,  Synesius,  philosophic  disciple 

of,  i.  90  ;  tragedy  of,  i.  118 

Ibas,  Metropolitan  of  Edessa,  accusation 
against,  i.  86 

Idelette  de  Bure  marries  Calvin,  ii.  151 

Ignatius,  St.,  allusions  to  abstinence 
from  marriage,  i.  19 

Ilchi,  Chinese  Tartary,  Buddhist  monas- 
teries in,  i.  103 

Ildefonso,  St.,  attacks  Jovinian  and 
Helvedius,  i.  68 

Ilgenthal,  Elector  John  of  Saxony  forbids 
election  of  abbot  in,  ii.  64 

Illegitimates,  ineligible  to  priesthood  in 
Coptic  Church,  i.  100;  in  Latin  Church, 
i.  241-2 

Illegitimacy  of  children  of  ecclesiastics, 
i.  92 ;  of  Anglican  clergy,  sixteenth 
century,  i.  147 

Illuminism,  aberrations  of,  ii.  285 

Images  burned  at  Smithfield,  ii.  108 

Immorality,  arising  from  vows  of  celi- 
bacy, i.  31  ;  less  reprehensible  than 
marriage,  i.  165,  236,  434  ;  favours 
shown  to,  i.  395 

Immorality  of  Church  {see  Morals) 

Immunity,  caused  by  appellate  power  of 
Rome,  i.  158  ;  by  forms  of  ecclesias- 
tical procedure,  i.  159  ;  for  adultery  by 
priests,  ii.  253 ;  from  torture  for  con- 
fessors, ii.  284 

Impostures  regarding  relic  and  images, 
ii.  97 

Ina,  King,  adopts  monastic  life,  i.  187 

Incest,  resulting  from  celibacy,  i.  156  ; 
common  in  Ireland,  i.  363  ;  diminished 


INDEX 


387 


by  marriage,  i.  212  ;  shocking  case  of, 
in  Rome,  ii.  245,  note 

Indelibility  of  priesthood,  i.  386 

Index  Expurgatorius,  the  first,  ii.  37, 
note 

Index  Librorum  Prohibitorum,  ii.  184 

India,  influence  of,  on  Jewish  thought, 
i.  6 

Indians,  bad  example  of  Spanish  priests 
among,  ii.  248 

Indians  of  New  Granada,  Bishop  Barios 
makes  rules  for,  ii.  246 

"  Indulgence,  the  St.  Peter's,"  preached 
in  Woerden,  ii.  50 

Indulgences,  a  marketable  commodity, 
i.  443 ;  suspicions  regarding  use  of 
money  from,  ii.  13 

Infallibility  of  Pope,  ii.  328,  349 

Infanticide  result  of  laws  of  celibacy,  i. 
31,  108,  156 

Infessura,  character  of  Sixtus  IV.,  i.  428, 
note 

Injunctions  to  clergy  and  laity,  Queen 
Elizabeth,  ii.  138 

Innocent  of  Rhodez,  i.  132,  note 

Innocent  I.,  complains  of  marriage  be- 
tween priests  and  widows,  i.  27  ;  in 
supporting  celibacy  does  not  refer  to 
Nicene  canon,  i.  49  ;  condemns  the 
Bonosiacs,  i.  68  ;  condemns  Vigilan- 
tius,  i.  72  ;  enforces  celibacy  in  Cala- 
bria, i.  78 

Innocent  II.  driven  from  Rome,  i.  294  ; 
prohibits  priestly  marriage  at  Liege,  i. 
294  ;  dissolves  marriage  of  priests,  i. 
388 

Innocent  III.,  enforces  celibacy,  i.  301, 
302  ;  reforms  convent  of  St.  Agatha, 
i.  319  ;  excommunicates  Otho  IV.  and 
John  of  England,  i.  345,  note  ;  requires 
ejection  of  sons  of  priests,  i.  348  ;  re- 
gards himself  responsible  for  English 
Church,  i.  349  ;  sends  legate  to  Ireland, 
i.  364  ;  refuses  application  of  Bossaert 
d'Avesnes,  i.  399  ;  summons  Christian 
world  to  Vatican  Council,  i.  405  ;  de- 
cisions of,  i.  400  ;  decisions  of,  on  di- 
gami,  i.  434-5  ;  approves  principles  of 
Order  of  Santiago,  i.  453  ;  brings  back 
to  fold  heretics  of  Bosnia,  i.  462,  note 

Innocent  IV.,  enforces  celibacy  in 
Sweden,  i.  302  ;  gives  judgment  on 
marriage  of  Bossaert  d'Avesnes,  i.  399- 
400  ;  responds  to  appeal  of  abandoned 
wives,  i.  401 

Innocent  VIII.,  licentious  character  of, 
i.  428  ;  forces  Laillier  to  recant,  ii.  29 

Inquisition,  Congregation  of,  addresses 
archbishops,  bishops,  and  ordinaries, 
ii.  354 

Inquisition,  issues  instructions  on  denun- 
ciation in  i88o,  ii.  356  ;  in  1897,  ii.  356  ; 
decision  of,  February  19,  1896,  ii.  358; 
decree  of,  on  November  9,  1898,  ii.  358 


Inquisition  in  Germany,  i.  470  ;  occupied 
with  heretics,  i.  472  ;  forces  recanta- 
tion of  John  of  Oberwesel,  ii.  28 

Inquisition,  Roman,  extends  operation 
of  bulls  on  solicitation,  ii.  262,  note  ; 
orders  observance  of  bulls,  ii.  266  ;  on 
questions  of  "  intention "  in  confes- 
sional questioning,  ii.  267  ;  orders  no 
question  on  "consent"  to  be  asked, 
ii.  271 ;  settles  sixteen  cases  of  solici- 
tation, ii.  273  ;  pronounces  on  questions 
regarding  solicitation,  ii.  273  ;  exacts 
denunciation  under  pain  of  excommu- 
nication, ii.  281  ;  declares  soliciting 
confessors  disabled  from  saying  Mass, 
ii.  281  ;  Hilario  Caone  confesses  to 
forty  charges  before,  ii.  282  ;  con- 
demns Panzini's  work  on  celibacy,  ii. 
326 

Inquisition,  Spanish,  teaching  of,  on  celi- 
bacy and  marriage,  ii.  204  ;  heretics 
and  the,  ii.  286  ;  requires  use  of  con- 
fessional box  in  confessions,  ii.  256  ; 
orders  laymen    to  serve  in  galleys  if 

.  giving  absolution,  ii.  256  ;  crowds  of 
accusing  women  throng,  ii.  259,  note  ; 
solicitation  no  longer  to  be  included  in 
edict  of,  ii.  260  ;  case  of  Fray  Vicente 
Gonzalez,  ii.  269  ;  on  denunciation  by 
penitents,  ii.  270;  change  of  attitude 
of,  regarding  solicitation,  ii,  272  ;  ac- 
cepts bull  Sacramentum  Poenitenti;c,  ii. 
275  ;  pronounces  on  number  of  denun- 
ciations required  for  conviction,  ii. 
281  ;  condemns  Lorenzo  de  Eldora  to 
galleys,  ii.  289 

Inquisitors,  manual  for,  chapter  on  nuns, 
ii.  305 

Insermentes  clergy,  ii.  308 

Interdict  on  England,  i.  344:-5;  on  Milan, 
i.  258 

Interim  instituted  by  Charles  V.,  ii.  73, 
185 

Interpretation  of  Scripture,  Poor  Men  of 
Lyons  claim  the,  i.  468 

Isabella  of  Castile  supports  Ximenes,  ii. 
22 

Isidor  of  Pelusium  on  neglect  of  celibacy, 
i.  91,  note 

Isidor,  St.,  of  Seville,  on  impostors,  i. 
128 

"  Isidor  Mercator,"  i.  155 

Isidorian  forged  decretals,  i.  155 

Italy,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in  384  in, 
i.  69  ;  resistance  to  celibacy  in,  i.  78  ; 
condition  of  morals  in  fifth  century,  i. 
85  ;  apostle  of,  St.  J  Benedict  of  Nursia, 
i.  123  ;  monachism  reformed  in,  by 
Gregory  I.,  i.  126-7  ;  state  of  Church 
in,  sixth  century,  i.  136  ;  state  of 
Church  in,  eighth  century,  i.  142  ; 
Charlemagne  and  Roman  clergy  in,  i. 
153  ;  state  of  Church  in,  tenth  century, 
i.    164  ;    Ratherius    of  Verona,  com- 


388 


INDEX 


plaints  of,  i.  167  ;  Atto  of  Vercelli, 
complaints  of,  i.  167  ;  Guarino  of 
Modenaand  Alberic  of  Marsico,  i.  176  ; 
Silvester  II.  lightly  treats  celibacy  in, 
i.  181  ;  state  of  Church  in  eleventh 
century,  i.  208-10  ;  S.  Giovanni  Gaul- 
berto  and  austerities,  i.  213  ;  Henry 
III.  and  the  papacy,  i.  214-15  ;  St. 
Peter  Damiani  and,  i.  216  ;  vain  at- 
tempts at  reform  in,  i.  222 ;  Damiani 
and  Hildebrand  foremost  figures  in,  1. 
226  ;  Council  of  Melfi  in  1059,  i.  231  ; 
schism  of  Lombard  clergy  in,  i.  235 ; 
anti-pope  Cadalus  repudiated,  i.  237  ; 
failure  of  attempts  to  reform,  i.  240-1  ; 
reforms  in  Milan,  i.  244-62  ;  condition 
of  regulars  in  sixteenth  century,  ii.  89  ; 
abuse  of  confessional  in,  ii.  269,  note  ; 
priest  guilty  of  solicitation  in,  not 
publicly  punished,  ii.  280  ;  tvsro  de- 
nunciations required  before  considera- 
tion of  case,  ii.  283  ;  case  of  Panzini 
and  the  Inquisition  in,  ii.  326  ;  con- 
solidated under  Victor  Emanuel,  ii. 
337,  350  ;  suppression  of  religious 
houses  in,  ii.  337 
Ivo  of  Chartres,  on  the  canons,  i.  317  ; 
reproves  measureless  scandal,  i.  318-19 

Jacobinbs,  number  of,  i.  99 

Jacobus  quotes  canons,  ii.  252  note 

Jacopo  della  Marchia,  ii.  18  ;  rebukes 
immorality,  forced  to  fly,  ii.  19 

Jainas,  the,  i.  22,  note 

Jalikiah,  Church  of,  independent  of 
Rome,  i.  369 

James  of  Jerusalem  Nazirite  and  pro- 
bably Essene,  i.  10 

James  IV.  of  Scotland  protects  Lollards, 
ii.  155 

James  V.,  attempts  at  reform  under,  ii. 
168 

Jameson,  Margaret,  marriage  of,  ii.  166 

Jan  de  Backer  (Pistorius)  of  Woerden, 
case  of,  ii.  50  ;  burned  alive,  ii.  60 

Jane  of  Flanders,  i.  398 

Jansenism,  Ultramontanism  triumphs 
over,  ii.  363 

Jansenistic  rigorism,  ii.  242 

Jean  d'Hullier,  puritan  Bishop  of 
Meaux,  i.  477,  note  ;  condemned  by 
Sorbonne,  i.  477,  note 

Jean  Laillier  condemned  by  Sorbonne,  ii. 
29 

Jean  de  Rely  on  morals  of  the  Church, 
ii.  15 

Jean  de  Varennes  accused  of  heretical 
teaching,  i.  472 

Jephthah's  daughter,  story  of,  illustrates 
Jewish  views  of  virginity,  i.  6 

Jerome,  St.,  on  origin  of  celibacy,  i.  13  ; 
on  virgin  birth  of  Buddha,  i.  22  ;  con- 
tempt of,  for  marriage,  i.  38 ;  de- 
nounces agapetae,    i.    47-8,    81  ;    de- 


nounces Bonosiac  heresy,  i.  68;  roundly 
abuses  Jovinian,  i.  69  ;  quarrels  with 
Vigilantius,  i.  71 ;  uses  coarse  invective 
against  Vigilantius,  i.  72  ;  successful 
labour  for  ecclesiastical  celibacy,  i.  81  ; 
urges  custom  of  Antioch,  Alexandria, 
and  Rome,  i.  89  ;  on  difficulty  of 
maintaining  virginity,  ii.  339 

Jerome  of  Prague  on  Huss,  i.  478 

Jerusalem,  impression  produced  by  cap- 
ture of,  i.  403 

Jessopp,  Dr.,  prints  deed  of  thirteenth 
century,  i.  354  ;  on  miscreants  who 
robbed  monasteries,  ii.  101,  note 

Jesuits,  guilty  of  solicitation  favoured  by 
Sixtus  V. ,  ii.  261  ;  influence  of,  power- 
ful in  Rome,  ii.  261  ;  try  to  gain  ex- 
emption for  religious  orders,  ii.  261 ; 
Reusch  on  Order  of,  ii.  266,  note  ;  ex- 
pelled from  Portugal,  France,  and 
Spain,  ii.  335  ;  Order  of,  suppressed 
by  Clement  XIV.,  ii.  335  ;  attempt  by 
Charles  V.  to  introduce,  opposed,  ii. 
338 

Jesus  Christ,  Portuguese  Order  of,  i.  455 

Jews,  relation  of,  to  asceticism,  i.  4-12  ; 
polygamy  of,  i.  26 

Jodocus  of  Lubec,  deputy  of  papal 
legates,  ii.  74,  note 

John  IV.  reproves  laxity  of  Saxon 
monasteries,  i.  188 

John  XIL,  extreme  depravity  of,  i.  165 

John  XIII.,  holds  Council  of  Ravenna, 
upholding  celibacy,  i.  172  ;  St.  Dunstan 
procures  bull  from,  i.  195 

John  XXII.,  Emperor  Ludwlg  undertakes 
to  depose,  i,  401 

John  XXIII.,  brutal  licentiousness  of,  i, 
426-7  ;  convokes  Council  of  Constance, 
ii.  3  ;  releases  Hospitaller  from  vow  on 
payment  of  600  ducats,  ii.  14-15 

John,  King  of  England,  Innocent  III. 
places  interdict  on  kingdom  of,  i.  844- 
5,  405 

John  Merlaw  of  Fulda  relaxes  rules,  ii. 
23,  note 

John  of  Alexandria  (Eleemosynarius),  i. 
138,  note 

John  of  Crema,  hypocrisy  of,  i.  338  ;  visits 
Scotland,  i.  367 

John  of  Engheim,  murder  of,  i.  417,  note 

John  of  Frankfort  on  papal  authority,  ii. 
14,  note 

John  of  Leyden,  ii.  24 

John  of  Liege,  i.  417,  note 

John  of  Lisieux,  i.  319 

John  of  Niklaushausen  (rustic  prophet), 
ii.  24  ;  burned  at  stake,  ii.  24 

John  (Ruchrath)  of  Oberwesel,  ii.  28 

John  of  Pirna,  i.  472 

John  of  Rouen,  i.  308 

John  of  Salisbury,  i.  319 

John  of  Saxony  forbids  election  of  Abbot 
Ilgenthal,  ii.  64 


INDEX 


389 


John  of  Utrecht  prohibits  men  entering 
nunneries,  i.  422,  note 

John,  St.,  of  Jerusalem,  Knights  of,  i.  451 

John,  St.,  the  Evangelist,  condemns  the 
Nicolites,  i.  21 

John  the  Baptist  undoubtedly  an  Essene, 
i.  10 

Jonas,  Justus,  on  Luther's  marriage,  ii  51 

Joseph  II.,  reforms  monastic  orders,  i. 
450  ;  inclines  to  priestly  marriage,  ii. 
300  ;  reduces  religious  orders  in  his 
possessions,  ii.  335 

Jovian  on  marriage  of  sacred  virgins,  i. 
109 

Jovinian,  claims  equal  merit  for  maidens, 
wives,  and  widows,  i.  37-8  ;  opposes 
ascetic  spirit,  i.  67  ;  attacked  by  St. 
Ildefonso,  i.  68  •  condemned  by  St. 
Ambrose  and  Siricius,  i.  69  ;  driven  to 
Milan,  i.  69  ;  abused  by  St.  Jerome,  i. 
69 ;  openly  assembles  followers  at 
Rome,  i.  70 ;  scourged  and  exiled  to 
rock  of  Boa,  Dalmatia,  i.  70 

Juan,  Don  Jorje,  ii.  249 

Judas,  Leo,  marries  a  beguine,  ii.  46 

Judah  and  Tamar,  story  of,  i.  5 

Judhael  of  Dol,  simony  and  marriage  of, 
i.  311 

Julian  (Emperor)  on  Syrian  asceticism,  i. 
42,  note 

Julian,  Cardinal,  legate  to  Ireland,  i.  364 

Julius,  Bishop  of  Wurzburg,  ii.  232 

Julius  III.,  grants  powers  to  Cardinal 
Pole,  ii.  125,  note,  130;  bull  of  indul- 
gence for  England,  ii.  130  ;  re-convokes 
Council  of  Trent,  ii.  181 

Junqua,  Abb^,  case  of,  ii.  324 

Jurisdiction,  appellate,  of  Rome,  i.  158  ; 
of  seducer  over  seduced  forfeited,  ii. 
357,  note 

Jus  primae  noctis,  i.  441 

Jus  spolii  enforced  by  Robert  the  Frisian, 
i.  313 

Justification,  by  works,  doctrine  of,  i.  129; 
by  faith,  doctrine  in  Scottish  Reforma- 
tion, ii.  162 

Justin  Martyr  on  chastity  and  marriage, 
i.  19 

Justinian,  constitution  on  ecclesiastical 
marriage,  i.  92  ;  adds  provision  to  legis- 
lation on  monachism,  i.  120 

Juvenal  on  shameless  papal  court,  i.  426 

Kaesgeng,  Our  Lady  of,  ii.  155-6 

Katharine  of  Aragon  divorced,  ii.  83 

Katz,  work  on  celibacy,  ii,  301 

Keledeus  or  Culdee,  i.  366 

Killore,  John,  burned,  ii.  166 

King's  College,  Cambridge,  enriched  by 

spoils  of  monasteries,  ii.  83  ;  Windsor 

enriched  by  spoils  of  monasteries,  ii. 

83 
Kirkham,  Bishop  of  Durham,  prohibits 

priestly  marriage,  i.  353-4 


Knade,  James,  married  priest  of  the 
Reformation,  ii.  42 

Knights,  of  Avis,  i.  455  ;  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem,  i.  451  ;  of  Rhodes,  or  of 
Malta,  i.  451  ;  of  Santiago,  i.  455;  of 
Marian  Order,  i.  457 

Koch  of  Wiesbaden,  case  of,  ii.  325 

Kokkius,  Dr.,  denounces  clerical  immor- 
ality, ii.  13 

Kolderup-Rosenvinge,  Latin  text  of 
Cnut's  laws,  i.  202 

Kopp,  Leonhard,  helps  nuns  to  escape, 
ii.  50 

Krishna,  similarity  of,  to  Christ,  i.  99, 
note 

Kyle,  Lollards  of,  ii.  155 

Labata,  Francisco,  imprisoned,  ii.  261 
La  BaumeUe,   M^moires    de    Mme.    de 

Maintenon,  ii.  298,  note 
Lactantius,  condemns  asceticism,  i.  40  ; 

denounces    hermit's    life  as    that   of 

beast,  i.  106 
Ladak,  lamas  in,  i.  103 
Ladislas,  St.,   introduces  celibacy  into 

Hungary,  i.  297 
Lafitau,  Bishop  of  Sisterion,  on  priestly 

marriage,  ii.  298,  note 
Lafuente,  ii.  336,  note 
Lagr^ze,    Histoire    du    Devil    dans   les 

Pyrenees,  i.  441 
Laity,  corrupted  by  clergy,  i.  320,  343, 

ii.  237  ;  in  favour  of  priestly  marriage, 

i.   301,  ii.  48;  in  favour  of  celibacy, 

i.  279  ;  ii.  108,  148 
Lambert  of   Artois    enforces    celibacy, 

i.  315 
Lamentatio  ob   Coelibatum  Sacerdotum, 

ii.  25 
Lammer  on  scarcity  of  priests,  ii.   197, 

note 
Lancisky,  synod  of,  i.  301 
Landolfo,  leader  of  Paterins,  wounded, 

i.  254 
Lands  of  Church,  in  German  Reforma- 
tion, ii.  64,  65 ;  in  England,  ii.  92,  130  ; 

in  Scotland,  ii.  160  ;  in  France,  ii.  335  ; 

in  Italy,  ii.  337 
Lanfranc,    moderation   of    reforms    of, 

i.  329 
Langdon.  Abbot  of,  **  drunkennest  knave 

living,"  ii.  88 
Langdon,   Rev.    William    Chauncy,    on 

clerical  morality,  ii.  348 
Langlande,   on  foreign  prelates,  i.  354, 

note ;  on  venalitylof  officials,  i.  358,  note  ; 

on  the  Church,  ii.  77 
Langssac,    M.    de,    instructions   on,   at 

Trent,  ii.  197 
Lanzo  of  Milan,  i.  245 
Laodicea,  Council  of,  in  352,  i.  56 
Laon,  case  of  married  sub-deacon  of,  i. 

400 
La  Reole,  monks  of,  kill  St.  Abbo,  i.  177 


390 


INDEX 


Lara,  Manrique  di,    Inquisitor-General, 

ii.  275,  note 
Lateran,  Council  of,  in  1123,  i.  385,  note  ; 

in  1179,  i.  363  ;  in  1215,  i.  405  ;  in  1870, 

ii.  349 
Latimer,  Bishop,  an  intermediary,  ii.  93, 

note 
Latin  America,  Plenary  Council  in  1899, 

ii.  343 
Latin     Church     dominates    history    of 

modern  civilisation,  i.  1 
Laurentius,  Gallus,  i.  434,  note 
Lausanne,  clergy  of,  drive  out  bishop, 

i.  423 
La  Vendee,  insurrections  in,  ii.  308 
Lawney,  chaplain  to  Duke  of  Norfolk, 

hon  mdt  of,  ii.  113,  note 
Lead,  value  of,  in  English  monasteries, 

ii.  99  note 
League  of  Schmalkalden  formed,  ii.  67 
Le  Bas,  estimate  of  number  of  French 

ecclesiastics,  ii.  313,  oiote 
Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  i. 

117,  oiote ;    History  of  Kationalism,  i. 

450,  note 
Lefevre  d'Etaples,  ii.  150 
Legacies,  to  Church   restricted,  i.    61 ; 

void,   to  priests'  children,  treated  as 

legitimate,  i.  382 
Legitimation,  letters  of,  ii.  161 
Leibnitz    on     Lutherans     returning    to 

Eoman  communion,  ii.  298,  note 
Leo  I.,  on  marriage  between  priests  and 

widows,    i.     27 ;     treats    recalcitrant 

Cenobites  tenderly,  i.  115 
Leo  VIL   answers  inquiry  of  Gerard  of 

Lorsch,  i.  169 
Leo  IX.,  ascends  pontifical  throne,  i.  218; 

takes  Monk  Hildebrand    to  Eome,  i. 

218  ;  degrades  Dabralis,  i.  220  ;  Council 

of,  at  Mantua,  broken  up,  i.  222  ;|  death 

of,  i.  223 
Leo  X.,  character  of,  ii.  34  ;  propositions 

of,  opposed  in  Diet  of  Augsburg,  ii.  .88; 

issues    bull    against    Luther,    ii.    40 ; 

feeble  efforts  of,  for  reform  in  morals, 

ii.  55  ;  Wolsey  applies  to,  ii.  81 
Leo  XIII.,  concessions    of,    to  Francis 

Joseph,  i.  458 
Leo  and  Anthemius  forbid  monks  to  go 

beyond  monasteries,  i.  119 
Leo  Marsicanus  on  Alberic  of  Marsico,  i. 

176,  note 
Leo  the  Isaurian,  i.  144 
Leo     the    Philosopher,     regulations    in 

basilica,  i.  92,  93,  note  ;  orders  recalci- 
trant monks  to  return  to  convent,  i.  120 
Leonistae,     St.     Ambrose    countenances 

tradition  of,  i.  66 
Leopold  of  Austria,  Bishop,  dispensations 

for  marriage,  ii.  219 
Leopold    of    Tuscany    tries    to    reform 

religious  houses,  ii.  282,  303 
Leptines,  synod  of,  in  743,  i.  148 


Lerida,  Council  of,  in  1250,  i.  379-80  ; 
1314,  i.  380 

Lhassa,  monasteries  and  lamas  in,  i.  103 

Liber  de  Amabili  Ecclesiae,  Concordia 
(Erasmus),  ii.  62,  note 

Liber  Gomorrhianus,  i,  219,  7iote 

Licences,  to  sin,  tribute  known  as  cuUa- 
gium,  i.  309 ;  inveighed  against  in 
Apocalypsis  Golite,  i.  345-6 ;  con- 
demned by  Lateran  Council,  i.  406  ; 
for  concubinage  must  in  all  cases  be 
paid,  ii.  239  ;  bishops  sell  to  women, 
for  immorality,  ii.  55,  note 

Licentiousness,  treated  more  lightly  than 
marriage,  i.  165,  236,  434-5  ;  of  clergy 
treated  as  result  of  celibacy,  ii.  211  ; 
regarded  as  a  matter  of  course,  i.  412; 
of  Middle  Ages,  i.  423 

Liege,  Manichaeism  in,  in  1025,  i.  244  ; 
priestly  marriage  in,  in  twelfth  century, 
i.  295  ;  Bishop  of,  on  corruption  of 
priesthood,  ii.  193,  note  ;  Council  of,  in 
1 131,  i.  294,  387  ;  heretics  in,  i.  464  ; 
Bishop  of,  on  gift  of  continence,  ii. 
193,  note 

Lignana,  Girolamo,  attempts  to  murder 
St.  Charles  Borromeo,  ii.  228 

Liguori,  St.  Alphonso  de,  on  papal  de- 
crees, ii.  268  ;  letter  to  conclave  for 
election  of  Pope,  ii.  305 

Lillebonne,  Council  of,  in  1080,  i.  308 

Lima,  synod  of,  in  1585,  ii.  246  ;  in  1552 
and  1567,  ii.  247 

Lincoln,  case  of  subdeacon  of,  i.  396, 
note 

Lindet  of  Evreux,  marriage  of,  ii.  310 

Link,  Wenceslas,  Vicar  Augustine  Order, 
marriage  of,  ii.  46 

Lisieux,  case  of  Archdeacon  of,  i.  435, 
note  ;  synod  of,  in  1055,  i.  308 

Litchfield,  Saxon  Bishop  of,  i.  329  ; 
visitation  of  diocese  of,  ii.  87 

Liturgy,  the  new,  enforced  in  1549,  ii. 
120 

Livonia,  privilege  in,  for  sons  of  priests, 
i.  416 

Lizka  makes  short  work  with  heretics, 
i.  471 

Llandaff,  Bishop  of,  on  commission  to 
try  married  bishops,  ii.  125 

Llorente  on  secular  and  regular  priests, 
ii.  294 

Lochon  on  secrets  of  the  confessional, 
ii.  271,  note 

Lollards,  the,  i.  476 ;  declaration  of 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  on,  i.  476  ; 
of  Kyle,  ii.  155 

Lomenie,  coadjutor  of  Archbishop  of 
Sens,  married,  ii.  310 

London,  Dr.,  abbess  of  Chepstow  ac- 
cuses, ii.  97  ;  chronicles  troubles  of 
ejected  monks,  ii.  113,  note 

London,  married  priests  deprived,  in 
1554,  ii.  124;  enumeration  of  married 


INDEX 


391 


priests  in  archdeaconry  of,  ii.  139 ; 
Council  of,  in  1075,  i-  329-30  ;  in  1102, 
i.  331  ;  in  1 108,  i.  336 ;  in  1 126,  i.  338  ; 
in  1237,  i.  350 

Lopez,  Father  Juan,  imprisoned,  ii. 
261 

Lords,  House  of,  delays  priestly  mar- 
riage, ii.  117 

Lorraine,  Cardinal,  instructions  of,  at 
Trent,  ii.  197 

Los  von  Rom,  movement  of,  ii.  329 

Loserth  on  immoral  priests  in  Prague, 
i.  478,  note 

Lothair,  Emperor,  tries  to  enforce  celi- 
bacy, i.  294 

Louis  le  Debonnaire  attempts  to  reform 
Church,  i.  129,  153  ;  makes  seduction 
of  nun  capital  offence,  i.  154  ;  prohibits 
practice  of  letting  blood,  i.  156 

Louis  le  Gros,  conditions  of  charter  at 
Compi^gne,  i,  326 

Louis  IX.  arbitrates  for  children  of 
Margaret  of  Flanders,  i.  399 

Louis  XII.  and  relics  of  St.  Denis,  i. 
256,  note 

Louis  XV.,  on  disorders  among  regular 
clergy,  ii.  302  ;  orders  arrest  of  priests 
frequenting  brothels,  ii.  303 

Louis  Philippe,  ii.  338 

Louise  of  Savoy,  Clement  VII.  addresses 
brief  to,  ii.  151 

Louvain,  University  of,  urges  reform  on 
Philip  II.,  ii.  191 

Love  letters  handed  in  confessional, 
discussion  on,  ii.  266-7 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  Life  of,  by  Ribadeneira, 
ii.  175,  note ;  scandalised  by  Spanish 
morals,  ii.  175 

Loyson,  M.  (Pere  Hyacinthe),  case  of, 
ii.  324 

Lucca,  sacerdotal  marriage  in,  i.  262 

Lucerne,  priest's  wife  disowned  in,  ii. 
325 

Luceta,  Dr.  Pedro,  foul  case  of  solicita- 
tion by,  ii.  290 

Lucius  II.  on  hereditary  priesthood,  i. 
341 

Lucius  III.,  on  sacraments  of  sinful 
priests,  i.  229,  note ;  on  hereditary 
benefices,  i.  397-8  ;  on  rules  for  Tem- 
plars, i.  4i>2  ;  condemns  the  Waldenses, 
i.  467 

Lucretia  Borgia,  i.  428,  note 

Ludeua,  Doctor  Juan  de,  disputes  on 
priestly  marriage,  ii.  203 

Lugo,  Bernal  Diaz  de,  on  scandal  attach- 
ing to  immorality,  ii.  255 

Lunden,  Archbishop  of,  on  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  302 ;  question  on  digami  by, 
i.  434 

Lupus  of  Troyes  on  celibacy,  i.  82 

Luther,  mistake  to  credit,  with  Reforma- 
tion, ii.  35;  ninety-five  propositions  of, 
ii.  39  ;  progress  of,  very  slow,  ii.  40  ; 


changes  views  of  priestly  marriage,  ii. 
40,  41 ;  Leo  X.  issues  bull  against,  ii.  40; 
burns  books  of  canon  law  at  Witten- 
berg, ii.  41  ;  preachus  on  clerical 
marriage,  ii.  46  ;  marriage  of,  ii.  51 ; 
defends  digami,  ii.  53  ;  at  enmity  with 
Anabaptists,  ii.  68 

Lutheran  colleges  crowded  on  account 
of  question  of  celibacy,  ii.  196 

Lutherans  dispute  with  Calvinists  and 
Philippists,  ii.  225,  note 

Lyons,  Poor  Men  of,  i.  468 

Lyons,  Council  of,  in  1274,  i.  407,  436  ; 
efforts  at,  to  reunite  Greek  Church,  i. 
407  ;  in  1528,  ii.  173 

Macaulay,  Lord,  on  Anglican  clergy, 
ii.  149 

MacClosky,  Cardinal,  ii.  341,  note 

Macedonia,  celibacy  enforced  in,  i.  91 

Macliaus  of  Brittany,  story  of,  i.  133-4 

MacMahon,  Marshal,  reactionary  govern- 
ment of,  ii.  338 

Macon,  Council  of,  in  581,  i.  133  ;  Claude, 
Bishop  of,  ii.  173 

Madrid,  "  soliciting  "  priest  temporarily 
exiled  from,  ii.  286,  note^  290 

Madrigal,  Manuel,  voted  to  torture  by 
inquisitors,  ii.  285 

Maesse-]?egnes,  i.  201,  note 

Magdeburg,  Council  of,  in  1403,  i.  439, 
note  ;  letter  of  Archbishop  of,  points 
to  papal  rapacity,  ii.  14 

Mahavira,  legend  of,  i.  22,  note 

Mahue,  cure  of  S.  Sulpice,  on  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  311  ;  tried  for  pamphlet, 
ii.  311 

Maiden  Bradley,  morals  of  prior  of,  ii. 
98,  note 

Mainardo,  Cardinal,  mission  of,  to  Milan, 
i.  257 

Mainerio  Boccardo,  provisions  of  will  of, 
i.  262 

Mainz,  Council  of  (1049)  forbids  simony 
and  marriage,  i.  220-1  ;  enforcement 
of  celibacy  in,  i.  274 ;  revolt  at, 
against  Rodolf  of  Swabia,  i.  282  ;  Diet 
of,  in  1085,  i.  285 ;  metropolitan  synod 
of,  in  1549,  ii.  190 ;  Diether,  Archbishop 
of,  case  of,  ii.  34,  note  ;  Archbishop  of, 
upon  points  of  discipline,  ii.  218 ; 
Council  of,  in  888, 'i.  157,  note  ;  in  1049, 
i.  220  ;  in  1075,  i.  275  ;  in  1225,  i.  418  ; 
in  1527,  ii.  47,  note 

Majorca,  troubles  in,  with  regard  to 
canons,  i.  382 

Majorian,  laws  of,  respecting  nuns  in 
458,  i.  116 

Malachi,  St.,  reforms  of,  i.  362;  visits 
St.  Bernard  at  Clairvaux,  i.  362 

Malatesta,  Carlo,  of  Rimini,  on  concu- 
bines of  priests,  i.  421 

Maldonaldo,  Fray,  accused  of  solicita- 
tion, ii.  289 


392 


INDEX 


Mallet,  Abbe,  case  of,  ii.  359 ;  heinous- 
ness  of  offence  of,  concealed  by  ortho- 
dox journal,  ii.  359 

Malta,  Knights  of,  i.  451  ;  accusations 
against,  i.  453  ;  suppressed  in  England, 
ii.  98  ;  Knight  of,  marries,  ii.  154 

Malvern,  Great,  prior  of,  offers  bribe  to 
Cromwell,  ii.  93,  note 

Manasses  of  Rheims  forced  to  abandon 
violent  measures,  i.  314 

Mancio  of  Chalons,  indecision  of,  i.  162 

Manes,  soi-disant  envoy  of  Christ,  career 
of,  i.  33 

Manfredonia,  Council  of,  in  1567,  ii.  230 

Manichseism,  enthusiastically  accepted, 
i.  33 ;  condemns  marriage,  i.  34  ; 
eucharist  in,  according  to  Mazdean 
form,  i.  35 ;  revived  by  Albigenses,  i. 
35 ;  early,  of  St.  Augustin,  i.  75  ; 
Milan  headquarters  of,  i.  244  ;  heresy 
of,  extirpated  at  stake,  i.  244 ;  revival 
of,  in  eleventh  century,  i.  244  ;  Milan 
a  nest  of  heresy  of,  i.  249,  note 

Manigold  of  Veringen,  case  of,  i.  280-1 

Mansfield,  married  priest  of,  imprisoned, 
ii.  43 

Mansi  on  twenty-ninth  canon  of  first 
Council  of  Aries,  i.  43,  note 

Manual  for  Inquisitors,  chapter  on  nuns, 
ii.  305 

Mantua,  Council  of  (1053),  broken  up,  i. 
222  ;  Council  of,  in  1067,  i.  237 

Mapes,  Walter,  satirical  verses  by,  1.  339, 
343, 353 

Mar  Abba  forbids  priestly  marriage,  i. 
99 

Marcellin,  Abbe,  on  "droit  de  marquette," 
i.  441,  note 

Marcen,  Francisco,  Provincial  of  Castile, 
imprisoned,  ii.  261 

Marcian  (Emperor)  restricts  monachism, 
i.  119 

Marcion,  heresy  of,  i.  20 

Marcus,  heresy  of  (Marcosian),  i.  20 

Margaret  of  Flanders,  story  of,  i.  399 

Margaret  of  Parma  and  Council  of  Trent, 
ii.  222,  note 

Maria  da  Gloria,  ii.  337 

Maria  S.  della  Scala,  canons  of,  Milan, 
ii.  227 

Mariana,  on  married  clergy  in  Spain,  i. 

370 
Marian  Order,  the,  i.  457 

Marian  persecution,  in  England,  ii.  135  ; 

reaction  in  England,  ii.  123 
Marien,  Fr^re,  prosecuted,  1299  offences, 
ii.  361 

Marillac,  Bishop  Charles  de,  on  discip- 
line, ii.  238 

Marino,  a  married  priest  and  miracle- 
worker,  i.  209 
Marino  of  Ostia  condemns  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  171 
Marisco,  Adam  de,  i.  357 


Marozia,  influence  of,  i.  164-5 

Marquette,  droit  de,  i.  441 

Marriage,  lofty  teaching  of  Christ  con- 
cerning, i.  10  ;  stigmatised  as  means 
of  transmitting  original  sin,  i.  36  ; 
Brahmanical  and  Buddhist  views  of, 
i.  34  ;  Manichseism  condemns,  i.  36  ; 
not  allowed  in  orders,  i.  28,  79  ;  per- 
sisted in  by  clergy,  i.  83  ;  custom  con- 
cerning, in  Greek  Church,  i.  97  ; 
custom  concerning,  among  Nestorians, 
i.  98  ;  St.  Jerome's  contempt  for,  i.  38; 
St.  Augustin  on,  i.  38,  75  ;  St.  Martin 
of  Tours  on,  i.  88  ;  not  dissolved  by 
monastic  vows,  i.  127  ;  not  contem- 
plated in  Irish  Church,  i.  184  ;  Council 
of  Melfi  endeavours  to  check,  i.  231-2; 
Councils  of  Vienne  and  Tours  prohibit, 
i.  232 ;  marriage,  clerical,  openly  de- 
fended by  chaplains  of  Godfrey  of 
Tuscany,  i.  234  ;  habitual  among 
Piedmontese,  i.  238  ;  comparative  mild 
decretal  against,  i.  241  ;  St.  Gregory, 
St.  Augustin,  and  St.  Victor  on  dis- 
solution of,  i.  386-7,  note  ;  stigmatised 
with  degrading  epithet  hy  Alexander 
III.,  i.  395  ;  gradually  given  up  in 
Latin  Church,  i.  403  ;  homily  of 
thirteenth  century  against,  i.  431  ;  a 
mortal  sin,  according  to  Catharan 
heresy,  i.  459-60  ;  heresy  to  teach,  as 
preferable  to  celibacy,  ii.  204  ;  dis- 
pensations for,  in  England,  ii.  209, 
note  ;  implies  heresy,  ii.  219 

Marriage  of  bishops,  prohibited,  i.  28  ; 
in  fourth  century,  i.  53  ;  in  Eastern 
Church,  i.  93  ;  in  Africa,  i.  95  ;  not 
allowed  in  Greek  Church,  i.  97  ;  Mar 
Abba  forbids,  i.  99  ;  prohibited  at 
Council  of  Augsburg,  i.  171  ;  practised 
in  Gaul  and  Gothic  Spain,  i.  133,  135  ; 
in  eighth  century,  i.  149  ;  in  tenth 
century,  i.  177  ;  in  eleventh  century,  i. 
209,  221,  232,  234  ;  ends  in  separation 
from  wives  in  Hungary,  i.  298;  for 
three  generations  in  Quimper,  i.  812 
in  Rennes,  Vannes,  and  Nantes,  i.  312 
Saxon  Bishop  of  Litchfield,  i.  829 
English  bishops,  i.  341-2 ;  Bishops 
Peter,  Philip,  Spiridon  of  Cyprus,  and 
Hilary  of  Poitiers,  ii.  42  ;  gives  wives 
title  of  countesses,  i.  312  ;  allowed 
under  Edward  VI.,  ii.  121  ;  sanctioned 
under  Elizabeth,  ii.  145 ;  Archduke 
Leopold  of  Austria,  dispensation  for, 
ii.  219 

Marriage  of  deacons,  permitted,  i.  28  ; 
forbidden,  i.  77,  92,  171,  299,  300,  331 

Marriage  of  monks,  permitted  in  fourth 
century,  i.  53  ;  forbidden  by  Justinian, 
i.  120 ;  forbidden  by  Gregory  the 
Great,  i.  127  ;  St.  Bernard  on,  i.  389  ; 
common  in  ninth  century,  i.  158  ;  in 
thirteenth  century,  i.   401 ;  forbidden 


INDEX 


393 


by  William  of  Cologne,  i.  422,  note  ; 
by  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  ii,  194, 
Ttate 

Marriage  of  nuns  made  by  Jovian  a 
capital  crime,  i.  109  ;  Councils  of 
Valence  and  Rome  endeavour  to  check, 
i.  113 ;  renders  inadmissible  to  penance 
during  husband's  life,  i.  115  ;  Leo  I. 
upon,  i.  115-16  ;  Pope  Symmachus  for- 
bids, i.  123  ;  Recared  I.  interposes  con- 
cerning, i.  135-6  ;  Gregory  II.  declares 
to  be  an  open  practice,  i.  142  ;  for- 
bidden by  Pope  Zachary,  i.  149  ;  homily 
against  in  thirteenth  century,  i.  348 ; 
pronounced  void  in  1630,  ii.  164;  pro- 
hibited by  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  ii. 
194,  noU  ;  under  Reign  of  Terror,  ii. 
313 

Marriage  of  priests,  in  early  Church,  i. 
13,  14, 15,  28  ;  restricted  to  single  mar- 
riage, i.  28  ;  Council  of  Neocsesarea  on, 
i.  24  ;  forbidden  by  Council  of  Elvira, 
i.  43  ;  not  forbidden  by  Council  of 
Nicsea,  i.  46-7  ;  definitely  prohibited  in 
385,  i.  62 ;  forbidden  by  canon  law,  i. 
77  ;  gradually  discontinued  in  Western 
Church,  i.  66  ;  custom  of  Eastern 
Church  regarding,  i.  89  ;  the  rule  in 
Armenian  Church,  i.  96 ;  obligatory 
for  parish  priest  in  Greek  Church,  i. 
98  ;  skilfully  tacit  permission  of,  by 
Nicholas  I.,  i.  161-2  ;  synod  of  En- 
gelheim  declares,  incestuous,  i.  171  ; 
Council  of  Augsburg  forbids,  i.  171  ; 
in  Italy,  in  sixth  and  eighth  centuries, 
i.  138,  143  ;  in  Merovingian  France,  i. 
131-2  ;  prohibited  in  eighth  century, 
i.  152 ;  reappears  in  ninth  century,  i. 
162  ;  common  in  tenth  century,  i.  169, 
171 ;  forbidden  in  tenth  century,  i.  171 ; 
in  British  Church,  i.  183  ;  in  Saxon 
England,  i.  186  ;  in  Wales,  i.  198  ;  uni- 
versal in  eleventh  century,  i.  210  ;  in 
Southern  Italy,  i.  231  ;  in  Tuscany,  i. 
234  ;  creates  a  political  party,  i.  236  ; 
becomes  a  heresy,  i.  236  ;  struggle  over, 
in  Lombardy,  i.  247  ;  persecution  of,  i. 
279  ;  cases  of,  in  Treves,  i.  279-80  ; 
penalties  inflicted  on,  i.  289  ;  in  Bohe- 
mia, i.  293  ;  in  Germany,  i.  292  ;  in 
Hungary,  i.  297  ;  in  Dalmatia,  i.  299; 
in  Austria,  i.  300  ;  in  Poland,  i.  300  ; 
in  Sweden,  i.  301  ;  in  Denmark,  i.  303; 
in  Friesland,  i,  303-4;  in  France,  i.  306  ; 
in  Normandy,  i.  309-10  ;  in  Brittany,  i, 
311 ;  in  Flanders,  i.  312  ;  in  England, 
i.  330,  331,  341  ;  in  Wales,  i.  358  ;  in 
Ireland,  i.  365  ;  in  Spain,  i.  370 ;  delay 
in  abrogating,  i.  373  ;  forbidden  by 
Alfonso  the  Wise,  i.  378  ;  continued  in 
Spain  and  Portugal,  i.  383  ;  St.Bernard 
on,  i.  389  ;  Gratian  on,  i.  390  ;  advo- 
cated by  Alexander  III.,  i.  402  ;  appa- 
rently condemned  by  Wicklifife,  1.  474; 


allowed  by  Lollards,  i.  476  ;  condemned 
by  Hussites,  i.  479  ;  advocated  by 
Bishop  William  Durand,  ii.  25  ;  advo- 
cated in  fifteenth  century,  ii.28-9;  com- 
mencement of,  in  Reformation,  ii.  46; 
demanded  by  Zwingli,  ii.  45  ;  accepted 
by  Luther,  ii.  46  ;  favoured  by  the 
people,  ii.  53  ;  persecuted  by  the 
Church,  ii.  48  ;  recognised  under  Inte- 
rim, ii.  73  ;  dispensation  for,  by  Paul 
III.,  ii.  74  ;  recognised  by  Transaction 
of  Passau,  ii.  75;  advocated  in  England, 
in  1530,  ii.  103  ;  commenced  in  Eng- 
land, ii.  103-4  ;  refused  by  Henry  VIII., 
ii.  103,  107  ;  capital  offence  under  Six 
Articles,  ii.  112 :  permitted  under 
Edward  VI.,  ii.  117,  118  ;  popular  re- 
pugnance for,  ii.  119-20  ;  suppressed 
under  Queen  Mary,  ii.  124  ;  admitted 
by  Queen  Elizabeth,  ii.  137  ;  matter  of 
Anglican  faith,  ii.  140  ;  uncertainty 
regarding,  affects  clergy,  ii.  149  ;  re- 
sented by  Catholics  under  Elizabeth, 
ii.  148  ;  a  matter  of  course  for  Hugue- 
nots, ii.  151  ;  dispensations  for,  sale  of, 
ii.  183  ;  demanded  at  Council  of  Trent, 
ii.  192 ;  prevalence  of,  ii.  195  ;  matter 
of,  prejudged  at  Trent,  ii.  199  ;  papal 
dispensations  for,  ii.  208  ;  pressed  for 
by  Maximilian  II.,  ii.  211-12  ;  in  post- 
Tridentine  Church,  ii.  231,  232,  233  ; 
denounced  by  Inquisition,  ii.  204  ;  in 
French  Revolution,  ii.  311  ;  causes  loss 
of  stipend,  ii.  313  ;  under  the  Con- 
cordat, ii.  316;  varying  policy  con- 
cerning, in  France,  ii.  314  ;  accepted 
by  "  Old  Catholics,"  ii.  328-9  ;  in  the 
United  States,  ii.  334 

Marriage  of  sub-deacons  (see  Sub-deacon) 

Marriages,  second,  denounced  by  Justin 
Martyr,  i.  23  ;  allowed  by  St.  Paul,  i. 
23  ;  Pope  St.  Gelasius  on,  i.  24  ;  for- 
bidden to  priesthood,  i.  25 ;  St. 
Augustine  on,  i.  76,  note;  Council  of 
Spalatro  forbids  to  ecclesiastics,  i. 
170  ;  in  eleventh  century  often  pom- 
pously celebrated,  i.  238 ;  forbidden 
to  Milanese  clergy,  i.  247  {see  also 
Digami) 

Married  priests,  ordered  to  separate  from 
wives,  i.  75 ;  orders  concerning,  at 
second  Council  of  Tours,  i.  134  ;  orders 
at  third  Council  of  Toledo,  i.  135 ; 
deprivations  of,  i.  153 ;  Rome  full  of, 
under  Stephen  IX.,  i.  225;  ordered 
by  Nicholas  II.  to  separate  from  wives, 
i.  229-30  ;  further  orders  for,  i.  234  ; 
pronounced  incapable  of  holding  ofiBce. 
i.  303  ;  mixed  courts  for  trial  of,  i. 
309  ;  persecution  of,  i.  316  ;  Charles  V. 
on,  ii.  67  ;  Melanchthon  on  cruelties  to, 
ii,  114;  divorces  of,  ii.  114 

Mart^ne,  Don,  i.  279 

"Marthas,"  servants  of  priests,  ii.  343 


394 


INDEX 


Martin,  case  of,  in  1 817-21,  ii.  322 
Martin  I.,  advice  of,  to  Amandus,  i.  141, 

note 
Martin  V.,  election  of,  ii.  5  ;  favours  of, 

to    John    XXIII.,    i.    427 ;   attempts 

reform,  ii.  6-7 
Martin,  Dr.  T.,  at  trial  of  Cranmer,  i. 

222,  note  j  treatise  by,  on  celibacy,  ii. 

126,  note 
Martin  of  Battle  Abbey,  i.  343 
Martin  of  Camin,  on  clerical  morals,  ii. 

20  ;  tries  to  reform  his  clergy,  ii.  20 
Martin,  St.,  of  Tours,  on  marriage,  i.  38 
Martyrdom  compared  with  virginity,  i. 

37  ;  of  English  monks,  ii.  86 
Marullus  on  Innocent  VIII.,  i.  428,  note 
Mary  of  Guise,  ii.  162 
Mary,  Queen,  and  obsequies  of  Edward 

VI.,  ii.  123  ;  persecution  under,  ii.  135 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  ii.  165,  170 
Mary,  St.,  of  Egypt,  i.  107 
Mass,  disputation    on,   in    Scotland   in 

1560,    ii.    163 ;    said   by   concubinary 

priests,  ii.  244 
Masses  for  the  dead,  similar  to  Mazdean 

rite,  i.   34-5 ;   maintained   by  Henry 

VIII.,  ii.  93 
Masses  of  married  priests  to  be  rejected, 

i.  228,  296,  308,  332 
Massieu  of  Beauvais,  marriage  of,  ii.  310 
Massipia,  name  for  legalised  concubine, 

i.  231,  note 
Materialism  of  Mosaic  law,  i.  4 
Maternity,  dissuasions  from,  i.  431-2 
Mathison,  John,  and  Anabaptists,  ii.  68 
Matilda,  Countess,  and  married  priests 

of  Lucca,  i.  260-1  ;  St.  Anselmo  im- 
plores intervention  of,  i.  263 
Matthew  Paris  on  Milanese  heresies,  i. 

249,  note 
Matthew  of  Salzburg,  attempted  reforms 

of,  ii.  177 
Matthias  Carvinus  on  priestly  morals,  ii. 

19 
Maud  of  Kamsbury,  i.  341-2 
Mauger,  Archbishop,  character  and  mar- 
riage of,  i.  180 
Mauleon,    Mile.    Desvieux    de,    ii.   298, 

note 
Maultrot,  answer  of,  to  Gaudin,  ii.  301 
Maurice  of  Saxony,  ii.  73  ;  fresh  treason 

of,  ii.  75 
Maurice  de  Sully,  powers  granted  to,  i. 

398 
Maurilio,  St.,  of  Rouen,  i.  180 
Mauiitanian    nuns,  case   of,  i.    114-15, 

note 
Maximilian    of    Bohemia,  suspected   of 

Lutheranism,  ii.  199  ;  favours  priestly 

marriage,  ii.  210  ;    pressing  demands 

on  Pius  v.,  ii.  212  ;  letter  from  Pius  V. 

to,  ii.  223  ;  less  zealous  than  Ferdinand, 

ii.  225,  note 
Maya,  virgin  mother  of  Buddha,  i.  22 


Mayer,  dissertation  by,  on  Catherine  von 

Bora,  ii.  52 
Mazdeism,  wholesomeness  of  religion  of, 

i.  6 
Meat,  abstinence  from,  discountenanced, 

i.  40 
Mechlin,  certificates  to  confessors  in,  ii. 

274 
Medicine,    profession    of,    incompatible 

with  priesthood,  i.  269,  woie 
Medina,  Bartolome  de,  on  abuse  of  con- 
fessional, ii.  276 
Meinhard  of  Treves,  indiscreet  reforma- 
tory zeal  of,  i.  296  ;  obliged  to  leave 

bishopric,  i.  296 
Melanchthon  on  Luther's  marriage,  ii.  51, 

note  ;  prepares  statement  of  Protestant 

belief,  ii.  65  ;   apology  for  Confession 

of  Augsburg,  ii.  65,  note ;    declared  a 

traitor,  ii.  71  ;  addresses  Henry  VIII., 

ii.  109,  114 
Melchior   of  Wurzburg  on  condition  of 

clergy,  ii.  190,  note 
Melfi,   Council  of,    in    1059,  i.   231  ;   in 

1089,  i.  289  ;  in  1284,  i.  420  ;  in  1597, 

ii.  230 
Melisse,    Frere,     prosecuted     for     fifty 

offences,  ii.  361 
Melun,  Assembly  of,  in  1579,  ii.  235 
Men  of  intelligence,  i.  470 
Menco,  Abbot,  on  questions  for  decision 

of  Church,  i.  305 
Mendelsham,  married  vicar  of,  ii.  107 
Mendicant  Orders    (Dominicans,    Fran- 
ciscans,     Augustinians,      Carmelites, 

Minims,  Jesuits,  and  Servites),  ii.  294 
Mendicancy  forbidden  in  Reformation, 

ii.  44 
Merit,     comparative,  of    virginity    and 

marriage,  i.  37,  38,  432 
Merlaw,  John,  abbot,  ii.  23,  note 
Merovingians,  papacy  in  hands  of,  i.  132 ; 

contentions  destroy  dynasty  of,  i.  141 
Merriman,  Mrs.,  marries  Pere  Hyacinthe, 

ii.  324 
Merseberg,  people  of,  demand    priestly 

marriage  and  cup  for  laity,  ii.  72 
Messiah,  the,  of  Mazdeism,  i.  22,  note 
Methodius    converts    Bohemia,    i.    290, 

note 
Metz,  sons  of  priests  ordained  in,  i.  178  ; 

Council  of,  in  888,  i.  157,  note  ;  siege  of, 

ii.  75 
Mexico,  first  Council  in,  ii.  246  ;  canon 

rules  adopted  by,  ii.  250  ;  suppression 

of  monasteries  in,  ii.  338 
Miguel,  Albert,  on  Mass  said  by  sinful, 

unconfessed  priests,  ii.  lib,  note 
Milan,  I  synod  of,  in  1098,  i.  261  ;  head  of 

northern  vicariate  of    Italy,    i.   244  ; 

headquarters  of  Manichseism,  i.  244 ; 

Paterian    faction    causes    riots   in,   i. 

250-1  ;  more  riots  in,  i.  255  ;  under  an 

interdict,  i,  258  ;  independent  of  Rome, 


INDEX 


395 


i.  246  ;  submits  to  Rome,  i.  252  ;  synods 
of,  in  1565  and  1582,  ii.  230;  reforms 
in,  by  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  ii.  227 

Military  bishops  in  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries,  i.  175,  note 

Military  orders,  celibacy  of,  i.  451 

Military  service  enforced  on  monks,  i. 
108,  note 

Mill,  Walter,  trial  of,  ii.  167 

Miller  of  Trompington,  wife  of,  Chaucer, 
i.  420 

Milo,  Arclibishop  of  Rheims,  later  of 
Treves,  i.  145 

Minden,  Dean  of,  miracle  reported  con- 
cerning, i.  321 

Mingrat,  Antoine,  murder  by,  ii.  358-9 

Minims,  Order  of,  ii.  243  ;  Hilario  Caone, 
of  order  of,  confesses  "solicitation," 
ii.  282 

Minimum  age  for  vovs^s,  ii.  302 

Ministers,  Calvinist,  severe  discipline 
for,  ii.  151-2 

M  i  n  n  e  k  e,  Heinrich,.  burned  as  Mani- 
chaaan,  i.  462 

Minucius,  Felix,  on  marriage  and  celi- 
bacy, i.  19 

Minuto,  Cardinal,  mission  of,  to  Milan, 
i.  256-7 

Mirabeau  on  marriage  as  no  bar  to  any 
profession,  ii.  309 

Modena,  troubles  in,  i.  263 

Modest  Apology  for  the  Catholics  of 
Great  Britain,  ii.  301,  note 

Molanus  on  terms  for  re-entering  Roman 
communion,  ii.  298,  note 

Molinism,  suspicion  of  doctrines  of,  ii. 
293 

Monachism,  i.  101-129 ;  model  of,  in 
Buddhism  and  Brahminism,  i.  101-2  ; 
vow  of,  matter  of  volition  in  early 
Church,  i.  105  ;  Eastern  and  Western, 
i.  116-17  ;  difficulties  in  West  regard- 
ing, i.  121  ;  practical  character  of 
Western,  i.  124  ;  made  irrevocable,  i. 
127  ;  source  of  power  and  wealth  to 
Church,  i.  129  ;  disorders  of,  under 
Carlovingians,  i.  155, 158  ;  reforms  at- 
tempted in  tenth  century,  i.  175  ;  in 
Irish  Church,  i.  184 ;  in  Anglo-Saxon 
Church,  i.  188,  200,  205  ;  condition  of, 
in  France,  i.  318  ;  in  early  Scottish 
Church,  i.  366  ;  degrading  regulations 
of,  i.  411-12  ;  good  and  ill  effects  of 
system  of,  i.  445-8  ;  Wickliffe's  attack 
on,  i.  473  ;  struggle  about,  in  France, 
ii.  338  ;  in  medigeval  times  and  in 
present  day,  ii.  339-41 

Monasteries,  Bhikshus  and  Bhikshunis, 
organised,  i.  101  ;  residence  in, 
ordered  in  'East,  i.  119  ;  not  neces- 
sary in  West,  i,  128 ;  entrusted  to 
episcopal  care,  i.  151  ;  women  ex- 
cluded from,  ii.  23,  note  ;  treatment  of, 
in  Reformation,  ii.  63-4  ;  suppression 


of,  under  Henry  VIII.,  ii.  83-4  ;  condi- 
tion of  English,  exaggerated,  ii.  87-8  ; 
broken  up  in  Scotland,  ii.  164  ;  sup- 
pressed in  France,  ii.  335  ;  Spain,  ii. 
335  ;  Italy,  ii.  337  ;  Paraguay,  ii.  338; 
Brazil,  ii.  338  ;  Mexico,  ii.  338  ;  New 
Granada,  ii.  339  ;  Venezuela,  ii.  339  ; 
Ecuador,  ii.  339 

Monks,  persecuted  by  Iconoclasts,  i.  97, 
note ;  many  infected  with  Eutychian- 
ism,  i.  118  ;  insubordination  of,  i.  118, 
120  ;  vagabond,  i.  122  ;  numerous  in 
Coptic  Church,  i.  100  ;  subjected  to 
military  service,  i.  108,  note  ;  wander- 
ing, described  by  St.  Augustin,  i.  112  ; 
St.  Benedict,  i.  122,  note;  Smaragdus, 
i.  129  ;  confined  to  their  monasteries, 
i.  119  ;  wives  of,  must  become  nuns,  i. 
127  ;  punishment  of,  for  unchastity,  i. 
114,  147  ;  custom  of  letting  blood,  i. 
156  ;  ministers  of  altar  selected  from, 
in  Saxon  England,  i.  203  ;  married 
priests  replaced  by,  i.  333  ;  residence 
of,  with  nuns,  in  Spain,  i.  373  ;  ordered 
to  sleep  singly,  i.  412 ;  pensioned 
when  monasteries  suppressed,  ii.  95  ; 
ejected,  held  to  vows  of  chastity,  ii. 
113  ;  in  Scotland  ordered  to  leave 
patrimony,  ii.  163  ;  business  of  con- 
fession largely  in  hands  of,  ii.  260  ;  S. 
Caterina  di  Pistoia  on  immorality  of, 
ii.  304  ;  marriage  of  {see  Marriage) 

Monluc,  Jean  de.  Bishop  of  Valence,  ii. 
152,  note  ;  description  of  French  clergy 
by,  ii.  173 

Montariol,  abbey  of,  and  "  droit  de  mar- 
quette,"  i.  441,  note 

Montanists  oppose  second  marriage,  i. 
24,  27 

Monte  Casino,  founded  by  St.  Benedict, 
i.  124 ;  not  suppressed  by  Victor 
Emanuel,  ii.  337 

Monte  Fiascone,  Bishop  of,  on  Pro- 
testants, at  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  182, 
note 

Monteroquer,  Guido  de,  on  priests  and 
female  penitents,  ii.  253,  note 

Montes,  Gonzalez  de,  on  women  and 
priests  in  Seville,  ii.  259,  note 

Montesa,  Order  of,  i.  455 

Monumenta  Franciscana,  i.  439,  note 

Morals,  clerical,  described  by  Cyprian  and 
Tertullian,  i.  31  ;  reforms  of,  Council 
of  Nicsea  on,  i.  46  ;  how  affected  by  in- 
troduction of  celibacy,  i.  81  ;  as  de- 
scribed by  Salvianus,  i.  85  ;  equally 
bad  in  Oriental  and  Western  Church, 
i.  86  ;  described  at  Council  of  Elvira, 
i,  108,  note  ;  by  St.  Jerome,  i.  108  ;  St. 
Augustin,  i.  112;  indicated  by  St. 
Theodore  Studita,  i.  121  ;  described 
by  St.  Benedict  of  Nursia,  i.  122,  note; 
St.  Isidor  of  Seville,  i.  128  ;  Smarag- 
dus, i.  129       • 


396 


INDEX 


Morals,  of  bishops  in  Merovingian  France, 
1.  132-3  ;  of  clergy  in  Italy,  in  sixth 
century,  i.  136  ;  of  clergy  in  France  in 
eighth  century,  i.  143  ;  of  clergy  in 
France  in  ninth  century,  i.  156  ;  of 
clergy  in  England  in  tenth  century,  i. 
192 ,  in  monasteries  in  eleventh  cen- 
tury, i.  205  ;  of  married  clergy  in 
Milan,  eleventh  century,  i.  237-8 ; 
clerical,  in  Germany  in  twelfth  century, 
i.  295  ;  clerical,  in  France  in  eleventh 
century,  i,  317  ;  clerical,  corrupt  laity, 
i.  320,  343  ;  clerical,  in  England  in 
twelfth  century,  i.  838  ;  clerical,  in 
England  in  thirteenth  century,  i.  347  ; 
clerical,  in  Ireland  in  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, i.  365  ;  clerical,  in  Scotland  in 
thirteenth  century,  i.  368  ;  clerical,  in 
Spain  in  fourteenth  century,  i.  383  ; 
clerical,  in  Church  of  twelfth  century, 
i.  396-7,  403 ;  clerical,  in  Church  of 
thirteenth  century,  i.  409-10  ;  clerical, 
in  Kome,  i.  424 ;  of  monasteries  in 
fourteenth  century,  i.  422,  note  ;  in 
papal  court,  i.  424-5 ;  in  mediaeval 
Church,  i.  435  ;  in  Bohemian  Church, 
i.  478  ;  clerical,  in  fifteenth  century, 
ii.  i.  7,  8-9,  15,  20;  clerical,  in  six- 
teenth century,  ii.  54,  57  ;  clerical,  in 
English  Church  of  sixteenth  century, 
ii.  81-2 ;  in  English  monasteries,  ii. 
87-9  ;  clerical,  in  Brunswick  in  1476, 
ii,  18  ;  clerical,  in  Bangor,  ii.  145  ; 
clerical,  in  Scotland,  ii.  154-5,  159-60, 
166  ;  clerical,  in  Germany,  described 
by  Cassander  and  Wicelius,  ii.  210-11; 
clerical,  in  Eome,  in  sixteenth  century, 
ii.  226 ;  clerical,  in  post-Tridentine 
Church,  ii.  229  ;  clerical,  in  Bohemia, 
ii.  235  ;  clerical,  in  Spanish  colonies, 
ii.  246,  247-8  ;  clerical,  in  the  Low 
Countries,  ii.  237  ;  clerical,  in  France, 
ii.  239  ;  in  the  confessional,  ii.  253-4  ; 
in  America,  ii.  341,  note,  344  ;  clerical, 
in  the  modern  Church,  ii.  339-45  ; 
have  nothing  to  do  with  solicitation, 
according  to  Church  views,  ii.  295 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  satirises  vices  of 
Church,  ii.  79  ;  accusation  against 
Luther  by,  ii.  80  ;  on  sheep  farming, 
ii.  120,  note  ;  on  Utopians,  ii.  80,  note 

Morone,  Cardinal,  legate  of  Holy  See,  re- 
port by,  ii.  71;  reports,  in  1542,  ii.  177  ; 
on  scarcity  of  priests  in  Germany,  ii. 
197,  note  ;  sent  to  Vienna,  ii,i200  ;  terms 
made  with  Ferdinand  by,  ii.  201  ;  re- 
quests urged  by  Ferdinand  to,  ii.  209 

Morrison,  Sir  Kichard,  on  assumption  of 
Church  lands,  ii.  131 

Mortal  sin,  Wickliflfe's  definition  of,  i. 
474 

Morton,  Archbishop,  visitation  by,  ii.  16  ; 
calls  condition  of  monasteries  deplor- 
able, ii.  89 


Mosaic  dispensation,  materialism  of, 
i.  4 

Mothers,  residence  of,  forbidden  in 
priests'  houses,  i.  156,  410 

Mucins  the  Holy,  story  of  blind  obedi- 
ence of,  i.  112-13 

Muhlberg,  battle  of,  breaks  power  of 
Protestants,  ii.  73 

Mulier  subintroducta,  i.  47 

Miiller,  Father,  on  moral  status  of 
American  priests,  ii.  341,  note 

Muncer,  John  of  Niklaushausen  pre- 
cursor of,  ii.  24 

Munster,  synod  of,  in  1566,  ii.  224  ;  im- 
possibility of  reform  in,  ii.  238  ;  Rasfelt, 
Bishop  of,  publishes  papal  commands, 
ii.  224 

Muratori  on  the  Umiliati,  ii.  228-9,  note 

Murner,  Dr.  Thomas,  on  immoralities  of 
priests  and  nuns,  ii.  89 

Mutilation,  practice  of,  i.  29  ;  advocated 
by  Sextus  Philosophus,  i.  30 

Mylitta,  i.  4 

Mynecena,  i.  201,  note 

Myrc,  John,  Instructions  for  parish 
priests,  ii.  17,  note 

Mystic  rewards  for  virginity,  i.  431-2 

Nalanda,  the  Sangharama  (Buddhist 
monastery)  of,  i.  103 

Namur,  synod  of,  in  1698,  ii.  274 ;  in 
1742,  ii.  275 

Nanno,  Count  of  Verona,  protects  married 
priests,  i.  173 

Nantes,  Council  of,  in  895  or  660  ;  i.  157, 
note  ;  Edict  of,  ii.  154 

Naples,  children  of  ecclesiastics  in,  i. 
416  ;  position  of  priests'  concubines 
in,  i.  420  ;  clerical  marriage  proposed 
in  eighteenth  century  in,  ii.  299-300  ; 
number  of  clergy  in,  ii.  306  ;  priestly 
marriage  in,  ii.  333 ;  Council  of,  in 
1576,  ii.  230 

Napoleon  re-establishes  religion,  ii.  316  ; 
allows  Church  to  regulate  question  of 
marriage,  ii.  316;  takes  up  case  of 
Talleyrand  and  Madame  Grand,  ii. 
318  ;  decides  against  priestly  marriage, 
ii.  320 

Napoleon,  Louis,  fall  of,  ii.  338 

Narbonne,  Council  of,  in  1551,  ii.  173, 
note 

National  Assembly  and  Church  property, 
ii.  306-7 

Nature,  crimes  against,  i.  155,  412 

Nausea,  Frederic  (Blancicampianus),  at 
Council  of  Mainz  iu  1527,  ii.  47,  note 

Nazirites,  ascetic  vow  of,  i.  5 

Neapolitan  Code,  the,  i.  416 

Neocfesarea,  Council  of,  i.  24 

Neo-Platonism,  elevated  mysticism  of, 
i.  28 

Nestorians  as  missionaries,  i.  99  ;  con- 
troversies of,  i.  118 


INDEX 


397 


Nestorius,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
heresy  of,  i.  98 

Netherlands,  reception  of  Council  of 
Trent  in  the,  ii.  222,  note  ;  troubles  in, 
caused  by  clerical  corruption,  ii.  236-7 

Neustria,  reforms  in,  i.  148 

New  Granada,  suppression  of  monasteries 
in,  ii.  339 

Nicaea,  first  General  Council  held  at, 
i.  46  ;  canon  of,  does  not  refer  to 
celibacy,  i.  49  ;  no  interference  for 
some  time  after  Council,  with  married 
priests,  i.  52  ;  canon  of,  renewed  by 
Greek  Church,  i.  97 ;  enforced  by 
Gregory  I.,  i.  138  ;  enforcement  of,  at- 
tempted in  744,  i.  148-9 ;  enforcement 
in  England  in  twelfth  century,  i.  336 

Nicaragua,  question  of  secularising 
Church  property  in,  ii.  339 

Nicetas  Pectoratus,  defence  of  Greek 
Church  by,  i.  223 

Nicholas  de  Clemanges  {see  Clemanges) 

Nicholas  I.,  orders  deposition  of  immoral 
priests,  i.  158  ;  rules  for  trial  of  priests, 
i.  160  ;  skilfully  tacit  permission  of 
priestly  marriage,  i.  161-2 

Nicholas  II.,  election  of,  i.  225  ;  canon  of, 
on  mass  of  non-celibate  priests,  i.  228  ; 
controlled  by  Hildebrand,  i.  231  ; 
intervenes  in  Milanese  troubles,  i. 
260-1  ;  canons  on  celibacy  renewed  by, 
i.  269  ;  enforces  celibacy  in  France, 
i.  306 

Nicholas  III.  and  efforts  to  reunite  Greek 
Church,  i.  407 

Nicholas  V.,  regulations  of,  ii.  13  ;  sin- 
cerely desirous  to  effect  good,  ii.  15 

Nicholas  the  Deacon,  i.  21 

Nicholas,Fray,  de  Madrid,denounces  him- 
self, ii.  291 

Nicolites,  heresy  of,  permits  immorality, 
i  21 ;  name  given  to  advocates  of 
priestly  marriage,  i.  236  ;  heresy  of,  to 
be  extirpated,  if  possible,  in  Milan,  i. 
252  ;  condemned  by  enormous  Council 
of  Piacenza,  i.  261  ;  condemned  by 
Council  of  Bremen,  i.  303 

Nigel  of  Ely  revolts  against  Stephen,  i. 
341 

Niklaushausen,  John  of,  ii.  24 

Nimptschen  in  Misnia,  escape  of  nuns  in, 
ii.  50 

Nismes,  residence  of  priests'  relations 
forbidden  in,  i.  411 

Nix,  priest  of  Caisho,  case  of,  ii,  134, 
twte 

Noailles,  Cardinal  de,  on  absolution  by 
sinful  confessor,  ii.  274 

Nobla  Leyczon,  la,  i.  467 

Nonna,  St.,  mother  of  St.  Gregory  Theo- 
logos,  i.  53 

Norbert,  St.,  reforms  of,  i.  819 

Nordhausen,  Council  of,  in  1105,  i.  291 

Norfolk,  married  priests  ejected  in,  ii.  128 


Norfolk,  Duke  of,  suppresses  Pilgrimage 
of  Grace,  ii.  95;  introduces  Six  Articles, 
ii.  Ill 

Normandy,  condition  of  Church  in  tenth 
century,  i.  179  ;  enforcement  of  celi- 
bacy in  twelfth  century,  i.  323-4 

North,  Sir  Edward,  obtains  the  Charter 
House,  ii.  86 

Northmen,  effect  of  incursions  of,  i.  158 

Northumbrian  priests,  rules  for,  i,  194,  note 

Norway,  rights  of  illegitimates  in,  i.  231, 
note 

Nucius  Nicander  on  English  monasteries, 
ii.  90,  98,  note 

Nullity  of  marriage  in  orders,  i.  385  ;  en- 
forced at  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  204 

Nunneries,  disorders  in,  under  Carlovin- 
gians,  i.  156  ;  in  Saxon  England,  i.  190; 
in  tenth  century,  i.  175  ;  in  twelfth  cen- 
tury, i.  318-19  ;  343  ;  in  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, i.  325  ;  in  fourteenth  century,  i. 
422,  note  ;  in  fifteenth  century,  ii.  2,  6  ; 
in  sixteenth  century,  ii.  89-90  ;  Dr. 
Murner  on  immorality  in,  ii.  89 ;  abuse 
of  confessional  in,  i.  435  ;  proposal  to 
place  under  episcopal  control,  ii.  89- 
90  ;  visited  by  comedians  in  sixteenth 
century,  ii.  189  ;  men  ordered  not  to 
visit,  in  Utrecht,  ii.  230  ;  Leopold  I. 
tries  to  reform,  in  Tuscany,  ii.  282; 
priestly  "solicitation"  in,  caseof  Sta. 
Clara  of  J^tiva,  ii.  269  ;  case  of  convent 
in  Cuyvacan,  ii.  289  ;  case  of  convent 
de  la  Penitencia  of  Salamanca,  ii.  290 ; 
case  Of  Mercenarian  Convent,  Madrid, 
guilty  mayor  of,  ii.  293  ;  scandalous 
condition  of,  in  Tuscany,  ii.  303 

Nuns,  shaving  of  head  prohibited  for,  i. 
114, 7icte ;  punishment  of,  for  unchas- 
tity,  i.  147  ;  seduction  of,  a  capital 
offence,  i.  154 ;  scandalous  lives  of, 
under  Carlovingians,  i.  155-6  ;  test  for 
virtue  of,  i.  356  ;  residence  of,  with 
monks,  in  Spain,  i.  373 ;  wives  of 
monks  must  become,  i.  401 ;  ordered 
to  sleep  singly,  i.  412 ;  Lollards  de- 
nounce, i.  476  ;  apostate,  claimed  by 
Church,  ii.  49,  note  ;  emancipation  of, 
in  Reformation,  ii.  50  ;  numbers  of,  in 
England,  ii.  116 ;  married,  divorce  of, 
ii.  127  ;  corruption  of,  by  confessors, 
ii.  184,  304  ;  account  of,  in  manual  for 
inquisitors,  ii.  305-6  ;  not  to  be  visited 
by  ecclesiastics  without  written  per- 
mission, ii.  249 

Nuns,  marriage  of  {see  Marriage) 

Niirnberg,  Diet  of  (1510),  complains  of 
Roman  rapacity,  ii.  34,  note;  re- 
proached, in  1522,  by  Adrian  VI.,  ii. 
49  ;  in  1523,  desires  to  enforce  canons, 
ii.  49  ;  complaint  laid  by  Diet  of, 
before  Pope,  ii.  59-60;  senate  of,  de- 
prives Franciscans  and  Dominicans 
of  superintendence,  ii.  60,  Tiote 


398 


INDEX 


Nurses  of  priests'  children,  honourable 

position  of,  i.  374 
Nursia,  asceticism  of  priest  of,  i.  139-40 

Oath,  of  Knights  Templars,  i.  451  ;  pre- 
scribed for  French  clergy,  ii.  308 

Obedience,  monachial,  nature  of,  i.  112 

Observances  common  to  Catholicism  and 
Buddhism,  i.  23  ;  and  Mazdeism,  i.  35 

Observantines,  ii.  21 

Odo  of  Canterbury  lays  small  stress  on 
celibacy,  i.  191 

Odo  of  Toul  excommunicates  immoral 
monks,  i.  404 

Ogilby,  Marion,  ii.  158 

Old  Catholics,  schism  of,  ii.  329 

Olmntz,  synod  of,  in  1342,  i.  419  ;  in 
1413,  i.  479,  note  ;  in  1591,  ii.  233 

Orange,  Council  of,  in  441,  i.  77  ;  William 
of,  and  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  231,  note 

Ordeal  in  ecclesiastical  trials,  i.  160 

Ordericus  Vitalis  somewhat  scandalised 
by  Eobert  of  Kouen,  i.  179 

Order  of  Widows,  apostolic,  i.  103 

Orders,  military,  i.  451 

Orders,  religious,  abolition  of,  recom- 
mended, ii.  183 

Orders,  holy,  reduced  by  Wickliffe  to 
priesthood  and  diaconate,  i.  473 

Ordination,  dissolves  marriage,  i.  385  ; 
declared  indelible,  i.  386  ;  of  priests' 
sons  allowed  by  Adalbero  of  Metz,  i. 
178  ;  priests'  sons  ineligible  for,  i.  215; 
sacrament  of,  attacked  by  Luther,  ii. 
41  ;  superior  to  that  of  marriage,  i.  386 

Orestes  nearly  loses  his  life  in  tumult,  i. 
117 

Origen,  views  of,  on  celibacy  distinct 
from  asceticism,  i.  19  ;  on  self-mutila- 
tion, i.  29 

Origenism,  civil  strife  concerning,  i.  71 

Orihuella,  synod  of,  in  1600,  ii.  236 

Orleans,  Council  of,  reference  at,  to 
Bonosiacs,  i.  68  ;  Manichseism  at,  i. 
244 

Ormanetto,  Niccolo,  mission  of,  to 
Bavaria,  ii.  201,  note 

Orthodox  Brethren,  i.  480 

Orsiesus,  rule  of,  i.  110 

Ortlibenses,  heresy  of,  i.  469 

Orzechowski,  Stanislas,  case  of,  ii.  208, 
note,  209,  notes 

Osber,  Council  of,  in  1062,  i.  237 

Osbern,  Life  of  St.  Dunstan  by,  i.  192-3, 
notes 

Osiander  on  perpetual  virginity  of  the 
Virgin,  i.  68-9,  note 

Osius,  Bishop  of  Cordova,  leading  mem- 
ber. Council  Elvira,  i.  43 

Osnabruck,  synod  of,  in  1628,  ii.  233  ;  in 
1625,  ii.  237 

Osnabruck,  von  Hoya,  Bishop  of,  ii.  224 

Osorius  on  marriage  of  military  orders, 
i.  455-6 


Ossory,  synod  of,  in  1320,  i.  365  ;  Bishop 
of,  ii.  118 

Oswald,  St.,  reforming  zeal  of,  i.  195 

Oswalde's  law,  charter  of,  i.  195 

Otfrid  of  Watten,  story  of,  i.  313 

Othlonius,  i.  220,  note 

Otho  I.  deposes  John  XII.,  i.  165  ;  edict 
of,  concerning  sons  of  ecclesiastics,  i. 
170 

Otho  IV.,  league  of,  with  John  of  Eng- 
land, i.  345,  note 

Otho  of  Constance  supports  clergy  against 
Gregory  VII.,  i.  271  ;  angrily  accused 
by  Gregory,  i.  272;  restored  to  com- 
munion at  Ulm,  i.  272 ;  joins  im- 
perialist party,  i.  272 ;  Gebhardt 
elected  in  place  of,  i.  272 

Otto,  Cardinal,  at  Council  of  London, 
1237,  i.  350 

Otto  of  Ostia,  mission  of,  at  Constance, 
i.  272 

Ottoboni,  constitutions  of,  long  remained 
English  Church  law,  i.  355 

Oviedo  on  priestly  marriage,  in  Spanish 
colonies,  ii.  245 

Oxford,  Council  of,  in  1222,  i.  350,  note  ; 
University  of,  on  Wickliffe,  i.  473, 
note  ;  reforms  proposed  by,  ii.  9  ;  see 
of,  created,  ii.  100  ;  Dr.  Eichard  Smith 
tries  to  stir  tumult  in,  ii.  119 

Pacheco,   Cardinal,   ii.   214  ;    reads  to 

Pius  IV.  letter  from  Philip  II.,  ii.  216 
Pacheco,  Padre  Felipe  Garcia,  and  the 

Spanish  Inquisition,  ii.  275,  290 
Paderborn,  synods  of,  in  1548  and  i549» 

ii.  190 
Pagan  priests,  restrictions  on,  i.  42 
Pagi  on   Council  of  Nantes,  in  660  or 

895,  i.  157,  note 
Paleario,  Aonio,  on  Council  of  Trent,  ii. 

180,  7iote 
Palencia,  Council  of,  in  11 29,  i.  376  ;  in 

1388,  i.  382 
Palestine,  monachism  introduced  into, 

i.  106,  note 
Palladius  {see  Patrick,  St.) 
Pallavicini,  on  immorality  of  clergy,  ii. 

193,  note ;    on  marriage  of  clergy,  ii. 

194,  note 
Panormitanus  {see  Tudeschi) 
Pantheism    of    Brethren    of    the    Free 

Spirit,  i.  469 

Panzini  on  celibacy  and  attendant  im- 
morality, ii.  326 ;  delivered  to  Inqui- 
sition, ii.  326 ;  released  by  Italian 
Government,  ii.  326 ;  republishes  essay, 
ii.  326 

Papacy,  degradation  of,  in  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries,  i.  164  ;  released 
from  secular  subjection,  i.  225-6 ; 
election  of,  limited  to  Roman  clergy,  i. 
235 ;  power  of,  culminates,  under  Inno- 
cent III.,   i.   408 ;    legate  of,  refuses 


INDEX 


399 


obedience  to,  ii.  10  ;  supremacy  of, 
abolished  in  England,  ii.  85  ;  restored 
in  England,  ii.  124  ;  abolished  in  Scot- 
land, ii.  169  ;  abolished  in  Galilean 
Church,  ii.  316 

Papal  court,  immorality  of,  i.  424-5  ; 
rapacity  of,  ii.  14  ;  reluctance  in,  to 
reassemble  Ooancil  of  Trent,  ii.  182  ; 
number  of  women  in,  ii.  344 

Papal  dispensations  {see  Dispensations) 

Papal  infallibility  in  Vatican  Council,  ii. 
328,  349 

Papal  Penitentiary,  i.  411,  ii.  55,  175  ;  on 
civil  marriage,  ii.  331  ;  case  of  poverty 
preventing  priests'  appearance  before, 
ii.  358 

Paphnutius,  story  of,  i.  50 

Paraguay,  suppression  of  monasteries  in, 
ii.  338 

P4ramo  descredits  female  testimony,  ii. 
284:,  note 

Paris,  Council  of,  in  615,  i.  128  ;  1074,  i. 
307;  1212,  i.  326,  411;  1323,!.  437, 
note:  1521,  ii.  89;  1528,  ii.  172; 
Huguenot  synod  of,  ii.  151 

Parker,  Archbishop,  marriage  of,  ii.  117, 
note ;  estimates  number  of  deprived 
clergy,  ii.  127 ;  nominated  to  see  of 
Canterbury,  ii.  137  ;  somewhat  modi- 
fies Queen  Elizabeth's  dislike  to  mar- 
ried clergy,  ii.  138  ;  orders  return  of 
clergy,  ii.  139  ;  Queen  Elizabeth's  in- 
solence to  wife  of,  ii.  141  ;  confidences 
of,  to  Burghley,  ii.  144  ;  addressed  on 
case  of  Anne  Goodacre,  ii.  170 

Parlement  of  Paris  on  religious  organisa- 
tion, ii.  302 

Parliament,  English,  confirms  supremacy 
under  Henry  VIII.,  ii.  85  ;  enacts  the 
Six  Articles,  ii.  Ill  ;  modifies  the  Six 
Articles,  ii.  115  ;  legalises  clerical  mar- 
riage, ii.  118  ;  reactionary  measures  of, 
under  Mary,  ii.  124 

Parliament,  Scotch,  of  1542,  ii.  158; 
1560,  ii.  161,  note 

Parliamentary  abbots,  in  1539,  ii.  98 

Parma,  stormy  times  in,  i.  263 

Partidas  Las  Siete,  i.  14 

Partner  in  guilt,  absolution  by,  ii. 
272-3 

PaschalII.,endeavours  to  enforce  celibacy, 
i.  292  ;  receives  repentant  ecclesiastics, 
i.  292  ;  enforces  celibacy  in  Denmark, 
i.  303  ;  Brittany,  i.  312  ;  Flanders,  i. 
315  ;  orders  reforms  in  Spain,  i.  373  ; 
on  ministrations  of  married  priests,  i. 
333  ;  on  children  of  priests,  i.  335 

Passau,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i. 
273  ;  Council  of,  in  1284,  i.  419,  note  ; 
revolt  against  bishop,  in,  ii.  11  ;  Trans- 
action of,  ii.  75,  182 

Pastoral,  earliest  French,  i.  437-8 

Paterin  faction  causes  bloodshed  in 
Milan,  i.  250 


Paterins,  opprobrious  name  for  Cathari, 
i.  245 ;  German  papalists  called,  i.  283 

Patmore,  Thomas,  condemned  by  Bishop 
Stokesley,  ii.  104 

Patra,  the  Buddha's  begging  dish,  i.  23 

Patrick,  St.,  classification  of  comparative 
merit  by,  i.  37  ;  traditional  Christian- 
ising of  Ireland  by,  i.  183 

Paul,  St.,  liberalism  of,  regarding  Jewish 
law,  i.  11  ;  text  from,  implies  marriage 
of  apostles,  i.  13  ;  asceticism  of,  i.  17  ; 
specifies  monogamic  condition  neces- 
sary for  deacons,  priests,  and  bishops, 
i.  26 

Paul  III., interferes  between  Melanchthon 
and  John  Eck,  ii.  72  ;  ;Charles  V. 
breaks  with,  ii.  74  ;  grants  dispensa- 
tions to  married  priests,  ii.  74  ;  attempts 
reform,  ii.  89 ;  excommunicates  Henry 
VIII.,  ii.  94  ;  orders  reform  for  French 
clergy,  ii.  173  ;  failure  of  reforms  of, 
ii.  192 

Paul  IV.,  on  English  Church  lands,  ii. 
131  ;  savage  decrees  of,  on  pretended 
confessors,  ii.  256;  on  "solicitation" 
by  confessors  of  Granada,  ii.  257-8 

Paul  V.  on  jurisdiction  of  Spanish  Inqui- 
sition, ii.  261 

Paul  of  Samosata,  the  heresiarch,  i.  32 

Paul  the  Thebsean  first  anchorite,  i.  105 

Paula,  Francisco  de,  work  against  en- 
forced celibacy,  ii.  326 

Pauline  epistles,  commentary  on,  by 
Lefevre  d'Etaples,  ii.  150 

Pavia,  synod  of,  in  1022,  i.  206  ;  schis- 
matic synod  of,  in  1076,  i.  259,  260 

Payne,  Peter,  i.  477,  note 

Peckham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
applies  to  Eome,  i.  355 

Pedro  I.  of  Brazil  suppresses  convents 
and  military  orders,  ii.  337 

Pedro  the  Cruel,  orders  of,  concerning 
clerical  concubines,  i.  382 

Pedro  de  Luna,  papal  legate,  i.  382 

Pelagius  II.  relaxes  rule  of  celibacy, 
i.  136 

Pelayo,  Alvar,  i.  383,  384,  412,  ii.  175, 
note 

Penafiel,  Council  of,  in  1302,  i.  380 

Penance,  term  of,  for  infraction  of 
canons,  i.  184 

Penitential  of  Theodore  on  marriage, 
i.  39 

Penitentials,  coarseness  and  suggestive- 
ness  of,  ii.  251 

Penitentiary,  papal,  i.  411 

Penitentiary,  taxes  of  the,  ii.  55 

Penitents,  prototypes  of  St.  Mary  of 
Egypt,  i.  107  ;  difficult  to  induce  to 
denounce  confessors,  ii.  270 

Pepin  d'Heristel,  i.  142 

Pepin  le  Bref  assembles  synod  at 
Soissons,  i.  148  ;  carries  out  work  q£ 
Carloman  &^d  Boniface,  i.  151 


400 


INDEX 


P^rigord,  Manichaeism  at,  in  1147,  i.  245 

Persecution,  Marian,  ii.  135 ;  of  Mani- 
chaeism, i.  34 

Persecution,  of  monks  by  Leo  the 
Isaurian,  i.  97,  note  ;  by  Valens,  i.  108, 
note ;  of  married  priests,  i.  279  ;  of 
Catholics  in  Scotland,  ii.  169-70  ;  of 
celibacy  under  the  Terror,  ii.  311 

Persone's,  Tale,  the,  i.  437 

Perth,  monasteries  destroyed  in,  ii.  164 

Peru,  corruption  of  Church  in,  ii.  247 

Perushim,  i.  9 

Peter,  St.,  descriptive  words  of,  regard- 
ing Christ,  i.  11 

Peter  d'Ailly  of  Cambrai,  i.  436,  note  ; 
realises  need  of  reform,  ii.  4 

Peter  of  Antioch,  i.  118 

Peter  Cantor  deplores  inferiority  of 
clerical  morals,  i.  820,  461 

Peter,  Cardinal,  urged  to  suppress 
clerical  marriage,  i.  239 

Peter,  Cardinal  of  Capua,  holds  synod  of 
Lancisky,  i.  301 

Peter  Martyr,  tumult  in  Oxford  against, 
ii.  119  ;  exhumation  of  wife  of,  ii.  132 

Peter  the  Venerable  relates  miracle, 
i.  321 

Peter  de  Vinea,  i.  346 

Peter  Waldo,  i.  466 

Peterborough,  abbot  of,  offers  bribe  to 
Cromwell,  ii.  93,  note 

Peterborough,  creation  of  see  of,  ii. 
100 

Petrarch,  opinion  of  papal  court,  i.  426, 
note 

Petrobusian  heresy,  i.  463 

Peutwitz,  escape  of  nuns  from,  ii.  51 

Peyrinnis,  Laurent  de,  regulations  of, 
ii.  243 

Pfaffenkind,  i.  417 

Philastrius  on  self-mortification,  i.  20, 
note 

Philibert  of  Sedan  on  clerical  marriage, 
ii.  314 

Philip  of  Burgundy,  Bishop  of  Utrecht, 
ii.  56 

Philip  of  Savoy,  career  of,  i.  353-4,  note 

Philip  II.,  petitioned  by  University  of 
Louvain,  ii.  191 ;  opposed  to  conces- 
sions to  heretics,  ii.  200 ;  opposes 
clerical  marriage,  ii.  214,  215  ;  begged 
by  Pope  to  send  influential  representa- 
tive to  Trent,  ii.  200  ;  representatives 
of,  support  Cardinal  Commendone, 
ii.  218  ;  opposes  St,  Charles  Borromeo, 
ii.  228 ;  orders  reception  of  canons  of 
Trent,  ii.  222 
Philippists  dispute  with  Calvinists  and 

Lutherans,  ii.  225,  Tiote 
Philo  -  mysticism    proves    influence    of 
Western  thought,  i.  9  ;   Phoebe,  deacon 
at  Cenchrea,  i.  56 
Photinus,  heresy  regarding   the  Virgin, 
i.  67 


Piacenza,  Bishop  of,  supports  anti-pope 
Cadalus,  i.  235 ;  great  Council  of,  in 
1095,  i.  261 ;  Bishop  of,  deposed  and 
murdered,  i.  263 

Pibo  of  Toul  asks  papal  decision  on 
priestly  man-iage,  i.  289 

Picardi,  i.  480 

Picards,  the,  i.  469 

Pichardus,  i.  470 

Pictish  Church,  neophytes  of,  i.  185 

Pier-Leone,  anti-pope,  stained  with 
foulest  crimes,  i.  424 

Piero  di  Carbario,  i.  401 

Pierre  d'Ailly,  i.  470 

Pierre  de  Bruys  burned  alive,  i.  463 

"Piers  Ploughman,"  quotations  from,  i. 
354,  438,  439,  note,  444 ;  ii.  78 

Pietro  Igneo,  Bishop  of  St.  Albano,  i. 
263 

Pietro,  schismatic  Bishop  of  Lucca,  i. 
263 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  the,  ii.  94 

Pinytusof  Gnosen  tries  to  make  celibacy 
compulsory,  i.  22 

Pisa,  Council  of,  failure  of  attempts  of, 
ii.  3 

Pistoia,  troubles  in,  i.  263;  Sta.  Ca- 
terina  di,  ii.  304  ;  Bishop  Scipione  de 
Ricci  of,  on  the  confessional,  ii.  304 ; 
Council  of,  in  1786,11.  304 

Pius  II.,  admits  the  marriage  of  clergy  of 
primitive  Church,  i.  14 ;  favours  cleri- 
cal marriage,  ii.  27  ;  increases  annates 
of  Mainz,  ii.  34,  note 

Pius  III.,  elaborate  bull  of,  ii.  185 

Pius  IV.,  on  origin  of  celibacy,  i.  15 ; 
admits  story  of  Paphnutius,  i.  51  ;  re- 
convokes  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  182 ; 
temporises  with  demand  for  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  194  ;  swears  prelates  to 
support  vows  of  chastity,  ii.  198  ;  con- 
cedes cup  to  German  laity,  ii.  209  ; 
treatment  of  Orzechowski  by,  ii.  209, 
note ;  pressed  by  Maximilian  II.  on 
clerical  marriage,  ii.  212  ;  vacillates, 
ii.  214,  217 

Pius  v.,  admits  that  clerical  immorality 
causes  heresy,  ii.  58,  note ;  accession 
of,  ii.  217  ;  character  of,  ii.  217  ;  re- 
forms by,  ii.  223  ;  suppresses  the 
Umiliati,  ii.  229,  note  ;  legislates  on 
property  for  priests'  children,  ii.  234  ; 
enforces  Tridentine  canons,  ii.  234 ; 
grants  power  to  Archbishop  Maxi- 
milian, ii.  239 
Pius  VI.  on  abuse  of  confessional,  ii. 
275 

Pius  VII.  opposes  Talleyrand  on  priestly 

marriage,  ii.  318 
Pius  IX.,  on  dissolution  of  priestly  mar- 
riage, i.  390,  note  ;  encyclical  letter  of, 
Qui  pluribus,  ii.  325  ;  organisation  of 
Vatican  Council,  ii.  328  ;  denounces 
civil  marriage,  ii.  331 


INDEX 


401 


Platonic  union  between  the  sexes,  i.  31 
Poggio,  lesson  taught  by,  ii.  242,  note 
Poissy,  Colloquy  of,  on  perpetual  virginity 
of  Virgin,  i.  69,  note  ;  result  of  Colloquy, 
ii.  238-9 
Poitiers,  synod  of,  in  rooo,  i.  181  ;  stormy 
synod  of,  in  1078,  i.  308  ;   Huguenot 
synod  of,  in  1560,  ii.  238 
Poland,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,    i. 
300  ;  member  of  Diet  of,  complains  of 
papal  rapacity,  ii.   14,    note ;    clerical 
celibacy  questioned  in  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, ii.  29;  sacerdotal  marriage  asked 
for   at   Diet    of,    ii.    192 :    sacerdotal 
marriage    and     communion    in    both 
kinds  asked  for  in,  ii.  192  ;  doctrine  of 
priestly  marriage  advances  in,  ii.  301 
Pole,   Cardinal,   legatine  powers    of,   ii. 
125,      note ;     forbids    withdrawal     of 
priests,    ii.    133 ;    death   of,    ii.  135  ; 
assists  Cardinal  Caraffa,  ii.  183 
Polish  National  Church  of  America,  ii. 

330 
Polity,  Civil  and  Ecclesiastical  Institutes 

of,  i.  203 
Polygamy  of    Moslems    compared  with 

Christian  morals,  ii.  347 
Pomerania,    clerical  morals   of,    in   fif- 
teenth century,  ii,  19 
Pomeranius  present  at  Luther's  wedding, 

ii.  51 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the,  i.  468 
Pope,  John   of  Pima  denounces  the,  as 

anti-Christ,  i.  472 
Pope,  Simon,  appeal  of,  ii.  125 
Popes,  conflicting  claims  of  three,  i.  214 
Popes,  rival,  i.  235 
Poppo  of  Brixen  made  Pope,  i.  218 
Popular   desire   for  clerical  celibacy,  i. 
79,  279  ;  invoked  by  Church,  i.  276-7 
Population,  influence  of  celibacy  upon, 

1.  449 
Portalis,  speaks  on  clerical  marriage,  ii. 
316  ;  quotation  from  speech  of,  ii.  317, 
note 
Porteria  y  Vela,   Fray  Antonio    de    la, 

atrocious  case  of,  ii.  291 
Portugal,  added  to  Spanish  Crown,  1 580, 
ii.  261;  military  orders  in,  i.  455  ;  juris- 
diction in,  for  priestly  "  solicitation," 
ii.  261 ;  offences  in,  put  under  Inquisi- 
tion, ii.  276  ;  Benedict  IV.  addresses 
brief  to,  ii.  276 
Postal  facilities  for  inquisitors,  ii.  283 
Poverty,     not     required      in     primitive 
monachism,i.  Ill  ;  enforced  in  rule  of 
St.  Tetradius,  i.  125  ;  of  Irish  Church, 
i.  363  ;    of  Scottish  Church,  ii.    164  ; 
of  Waldenses,  i.  466-7 ;  of  Franciscans, 
i.  471 
Poynette,  Bishop,  controversial  writing 
of,  ii.  118  ;  Apologie  for  the  godly  mar- 
riadge  of  priestes,  ii.  126,  note 
Praemunire  for    recognising    papal  au- 

VOL.  II. 


thority,  ii,  95 ;  derivation  of  name,  ii. 
95,  note 
Pragmatic  sanction  of  1483,  ii.  12 
Prague,   enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i. 
293-4  ;  University  of,  condemns  Wick- 
liffe,  i.  477,  note  ;  Council  of,  in  1420, 
i.  479,  note  ;  synod  of,  in  1565,  ii.  232, 
235 
Pratimoksha,   oldest  sculpture  of    Bud- 
dhism, i.  102 
Pregiudizi  del  Celibate,  ii.  299 
Premonstratensians,  i.  318 
Prerogatives,  royal,  disavowed  as  head 

of  Church,  ii.  124 
Priests,  children  of  {see  Children) 
Priests,  divorce  of  {see  Divorce) 
Priests,  immorality  of  {see  Morals) 
Priests,   adulterous  wives  of,  to  be  put 
away,  i.  27  ;  responsible  for  parish  pro- 
perty,  i.  137 ;  wives  of,  in   Italy,   in 
eighth  century,  i.  142-3  ;  punishment 
of,   for  unchastity,   i.  147 ;  disorders 
caused  by  wives  of,  i.  167  ;  purgation 
of,  in  Saxon  England,  i.  202 ;  wives  of, 
reduced  to  slavery,  i.  221,  289  ;  resist 
celibacy,  i.238,  249,262-3,  275 ;  obliged 
to  join  in  wolf  hunts,  i.  370  ;   power 
and  privileges  of,  i.  442 ;  corrupt  the 
laity,  i.  318,  431,  434,  ii.  59-60,    177, 
346  ;  not   to   be  consecrated  without 
testimonial  for  character,  ii.  191  ;  cor- 
ruption of,   surpassing  that   of  other 
men,  ii.  193  ;  scarcity  of,  in  Germany, 
ii.  197,  note  ;  set  bad  example  to  con- 
verts   in    Spanish    colonies,    ii.    247  ; 
cruelly  treated  in  Reign  of  Terror,  ii. 
308 
Priesthood,  hereditary  {see  Hereditary) 
Priesthood  incompatible  with  profession 

of  medicine,  i.  269,  note 
Priestly  caste,  danger  of  creating,  i.  166 
Primitive  Church,  asceticism  in,  i.  17  ; 

marriage  permitted  in,  i.  14 
Procedure,  ecclesiastical,  gives  practical 

immunity,  i.  159 
Procopius,  St.,  marriage  of,  i.  210  ;  the 

Hussite,  i.  480 
Prodicus,  originator  of  mystic  libertinism 

of  Gnostics,  i.  20 
Promotion  dependent  on  celibacy,  i.  77 
Property,  Church,  threatened  by  priestly 
marriage,   i.  137;  dilapidation  of,  in 
tenth   century,     i.  165  ;    in   sixteenth 
century,  ii.  71 ;  left  under  Queen  Mary 
in  private  hands,  ii.  130 ;  transmitted 
to  children  of  ecclesiastics,  ii.  234 
Property,  monastic,  confiscated  in  Ger- 
many, ii.  65  ;  Scotland,  ii.  163  ;  France, 
ii.  306-7  ;  Italy,  ii.  337 
Prosecution  of  priests,  many  victims  for 

each,  ii.  361 
Prostitution  encouraged  by  celibacy,  ii. 

347 
Prota,  Dr.,  on  civil  marriage,  ii.  333 

2C 


402 


INDEX 


Protestant  belief,  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, ii.  65 

Pujades,  on  Ferma  despoli  forgada,  i. 
442,  note 

Pujalon,  Fernandez,  of  Oiempozuelos,  im- 
morality of,  ii.  286 

Puricelli,  on  marriage  of  Eriberto  of 
Milan,  i.  245,  note;  on  Ambrosian  tradi- 
tion, i.  247-8,  note 

Puy,  Kaymond  du,  organises  Knights  of 
St.  John,  i.  451 

QUADRIPAETITUS,  ii.  332,  note 
Quedlinburg,  Diet  of,  in  1085,  i.  285 
Quick,  Synodican,  in  Gallia  Reformata, 

ii.  151,  note 
Quietist  monks,  i.  8,  note 
Quimper,  diocese  of,  hereditary  descent 

in,  i.  312 
Quinisext  in  Trullo,  i.  94  ;  canons  of,  i. 

94 
Quiroga,  Inquisitor-General,  threatened 

by  Sixtus  V.,ii.  261 

Radulphus  of  Ardens  on  clerical  morals, 

i.  320,  note 
Rag-pickers,    known  as    Patari,  i.  249, 

note 
Rainbaldo  of  Fiesole,  dissolute  life  of,  i. 

209 
Ranald  and  Raymond,  father  and  son, 

both  priests,  i.  167 
Raould  of  Poitiers,  i.  320 
Rapacity  of  papal  court,  ii.  14  ;  calls  for 

reform,    ii.    33  ;    proved   by    case    of 

Archbishop  Di  ether,  ii.  34,  note 
Rasfelt    of    Munster    forced    to  resign 

bishopric,  ii.  224 
Ratherius  of  Verona,  on  priests'  sons  as 

priests,  i.  167 ;  priests  of  diocese  of, 

all  married,  i.  169  ;  troubles  in  diocese 

of,  i.  172-4 
Ratisbon,    Council    of,    in    thirteenth 

century,  i.  296  ;   Bishop  of,  in   15 12, 

issues  canons,  ii.  56  ;    Council  of,  in 

1524,  ii.  48  ;  Diet  of,  in  1532,  ii.  69  ; 

in  1 541,  ii.  72 
Ratramnus  of  Corvey  on  Nicene  canons, 

i.  48,  note 
Rauscher,     Cardinal,     denounces     civil 

marriage,  ii.  331 
Ravenna,  Council  of,  in  967,  condemns 

priestly  marriage,   i.  172  ;   in  997,  i. 

181-2 ;  in  thirteenth  century,  i.  296 ; 

in  1568,  ii.  230 
Raymond  of  Galicia,  i.  375 
Raymond  du  Puy  founds  Knights  of  St. 

John,  i.  451 
Recared  I.  enforces  celibacy,  i.  135 
Recherches    sur  I'Etat    Monastique    et 

Ecclesiastique,  ii.  300,  note 
Reconciliation     of     imperialist    clergy, 

1 106,  i.  292;    of  Anglican  clergy,  ii. 

133;  of  England  to  Rome  ii.  130 


Reformation  in  Germany,  the,  ii.  31-76  ; 
caused  by  clerical  corruption,  ii.  57, 
171.  177,  192,  223-4  ;  in  England, 
ii.  77-149  ;  in  Scotland,  ii.  154-70 

Reforms  proposed  at  Constance,  i.  427 ; 
at  Basle,  i.  427  ;  at  Trent,  ii.  206 

Regency,  Council  of  the,  ii.  49 

Reggio,  troubles  in,  i.  263 

Relics,  false,  sold  by  monks,  i.  112 ; 
ridiculed  by  Erasmus,  ii.  35-6  ;  im- 
postures of,  in  England,  ii.  97 

Rely,  Jean  de,  Bishop  of  Angers,  ii.  15 

Renan,  Ernest,  on  morality  of  clergy,  ii. 
342 

Renaud,  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  protects 
Flemish  priests,  i.  314 

Requesens,  Luis  de,  ii.  214 

Residence  of  female  relations,  forbidden 
to  priests,  i.  156,  410 ;  canon  of 
Nicsea  on,  i.  46  ;  law  of  Honorius  on, 
i.  49  ;  prohibition  of,  enforced,  i.  88, 
7iote  ;  in  Greek  Church,  i.  97 ;  Gregory  I. 
on,  i.  1.  138 ;  forbidden  in  744,  i.  149  ; 
with  priests,  legislation  on,  i.  154 ; 
tolerated  in  Spain,  i.  370,  376 ;  Arch- 
bishop Grindal  on,  ii.  145  ;  Hermann 
von  Wied  on,  ii.  176-7 ;  over  forty 
years  old,  allowed  by  Augsburg  Code, 
ii.  186 

Residence,  of  sisters  and  nieces  forbidden 
by  Council  of  Bordeaux,  ii.  240  ;  of 
women  regulated  in  Spanish  colonies, 
ii.  246  ;  with  priests  in  United  States, 
ii.  341,  note  ;  in  Vatican,  ii.  344  ;  dis- 
cussed in  modern  Councils,  ii.  345-6 

Residence  of  illegitimate  children  with 
clerical  fathers  forbidden  in  Scotland, 
ii.  160 

"Reserved"  offences,  ii.  295  ;  seduction 
never  included  among,  ii.  295,  351 

Resistance  of  clergy  to  celibacy,  i.  237-8, 
249,  263,  270-1,  275 

Responsibility  of  the  Church,  i.  442 

Restitution,  form  of,  for  restored  priests, 
ii.  128,  note 

Restrictions  on  monachism,  by  Valens,  i. 
108,  note  ;  by  Majorian,  i.  116  ;  in  the 
East,  i.  118 

Restrictions  on  clerical  marriage  by 
Queen  Elizabeth,  ii.  138 

Results  of  celibacy,  i.  409-11 

Reusch,  on  the  Order  of  Jesuits,  ii.  266, 
note;  and  the  "Old  Catholic"  move- 
ment, ii.  329 

Revolution,  French,  question  of  priestly 
marriage  in,  ii,  301  ;  Church  property 
in,  ii.  306-7 ;  marriage  encouraged 
under,  ii.  311 

Rheims,  Council  of,  in  874,  i.  160;  in 
1049,  i.  221 ;  in  1119,  i.  322  ;  in  1130 
and  1 131,  i.  387  ;  in  1583,  ii.  240 

Rhine  lands,  *'  Old  Catholic  "  movement 
in,  ii.  329 

Rhodes,  Knights  of,  i.  451 


INDEX 


403 


Ribadeneira,  disciple  and  biographer, 
Ignatius  Loyola,  ii.  175 

Richard  Fitz-Neal,  son  of  a  bishop,  made 
Bishop  of  London,  i.  342 

Richard  of  Albano,  i.  315 

Richard  of  Dover  reports  to  Thomas 
Cromwell,  ii.  96 

Richard  of  Marseilles,  papal  legate  to 
Spain,  i.  372 

Richard  the  Fearless,  i.  179 

Richmond,  Thomas,  case  of,  i.  477  note 

Richstich-Landrecht,  children  of  clerks 
in,  i.  417,  note 

Rig  Veda,  the,  on  Tapas,  i.  8,  note 

Rigobert,  St.,  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  i. 
145 

Rivera  on  ecclesiastical  law  in  Mexico, 
ii.  250 

Rives,  Fray  Joseph,  tried  in  Valencia  for 
solicitation,  ii.  286  ;  evades  letter  of 
papal  decrees,  ii.  286 

Robber  Synod  at  Ephesus,  i.  118 

Robert  d'Arbrissel,  i.  311,  319 

Robert  d'Artois  marries  a  widow,  i.  315 

Robert  de  Curzon,  Cardinal,  i.  411 

Robert  the  Frisian,  i.  312,  313 

Robert  the  Good  (Naples),  i.  421 

Robert  the  Hierosolymitan  of  Flanders, 
i.  314 

Robert  the  Pious,  indifferent  about  celi- 
bacy, i.  207 ;  assembles  Council  of 
Bourges,  i.  207  ;  sentence  of  excom- 
munication on,  i.  211  ;  causes  heretics 
to  be  burned,  i.  244 

Robert  of  Rouen,  publicly  and  openly 
married,  i.  179 

Robles,  Life  of  Ximenes  by,  ii.  22,  note 

Rodolf  of  Bourges  on  residence  of  female 
relatives,  i.  157,  note 

Rodolf  of  Swabia,  revolt  against,  i.  282  ; 
menacing  letter  from  Pope  Gregory, 
i.  277 

Rome,  synod  of,  in  1079,  i.  51  ;  in  384, 
i.  62,  113  ;  Councils  of,  in  721  and 
732,  i.  142  ;  Council  of,  in  745,  i.  149  ; 
826,  i.  230,  note;  1051,  i.  221;  1057, 
i.  225  ;  1059,  i.  228  ;  1063,  i.  237  ;  1066, 
i.  255  ;  1074,  i.  269  ;  1725,  ii.  342  ;  Latin 
American  Council  held  in,  ii.  343 ; 
pseudo  Council  in,  under  Silvester, 
i.  50,  136 ;  avarice  of,  ii.  14,  33  ; 
brothels  kept  by  prelates  in,  ii.  57,  note  ; 
England  reconciled  to,  ii.  129  ;  Ger- 
many oppressed  by,  ii.  33  ;  heretics 
forbidden  in,  i.  70 ;  Ireland  under 
authority  of,  i.  361  ;  influence  of,  ex- 
tended to  Spain,  1.  371  ;  limits  of 
jurisdiction  of,  i.  88  ;  demoralising 
effect  of,  i.  158,  398, 430  ;  licentiousness 
of,  acknowledged  by  Alexander  IV.,  i. 
413 ;  morals  of  pagan,  i.  18 ;  of  Christian, 
i.  85,  210,  226  ;  pilgrims  deterred  from 
visiting,  i.  165  ;  reforms  in,  by  Pius  V. ; 
ii.  223  ;   supremacy  of,  asserted  over 


Milan,  i.  252 ;  toleration  in,  of  sacri- 
lege and  lust,  ii.  59 
Romuald   the  priest  and  his  wife,  pro- 
perty confirmed  to,  i.  143 
Romuald,  St.,  disciples  of,  i.  217 
Rosceline     addressed     by    Thibaut    of 

Etampes,  i.  335 
Rota,  priest  of,  fate  of,  i.  281 
Rothius  on  the  Nicolites,  i.  21,  note 
Rouen,  Archbishops  of,  in  tenth  century, 
i.  179  ;  Council  of,  in  1072,  1.  308  ;  in 
1148,  i.  466  ;  in  1189,  i.  397,  note  ;   in 
1581,11.  154 
Rousillon,  Edict  of,  in  1564,  ii.  153 
Ruchrath,  John,  of  Oberwesel,  ii.  28 
Rules  of  monachism,  early,  i.  110 
Rule  of  St.  Augustin,  i.  319  ;   St.  Bene- 
dict, i.  124,  151  ;  St.  Cassianus,  i.  122  ; 
St.    Caesarius    of   Aries,    i.    125 ;    St. 
Chrodegang,  i.  152  ;    St.    Columba,  1. 
185;  St.  Orsiesius,  i.  110;  St.  Tetra- 
dius,  i.  125 
Rupert  of  Duits,  on  priestly  marriage,  i. 

295 
Russel,  Lord,  suppresses  insurrection  in 

Devon,  ii.  120 
Russian  Church,  customs  of,  i.  97-8 
Rusticus  of  Narbonne,  i.  78 

Saccopori,  heresy  of,  i.  34 
Sacerdotalism,  celibacy  a  requisite  of,  1. 

267  ;  irrevocable  nature  of,  i.  386 
Sacrament  of  marriage  inferior  to  that 

of  ordination,  i.  385-6,  388 
Sacraments  of  sinful  priests,  i.  187,  230, 

note,  437,  460,  478  ;  ii.  6,  272 
Sacrilege  and  lust,  toleration  for,  ii.  59 
Sadducees,  doctrine  of,  as  to  future  life, 

i.  8 
Sadoleto  on  commission  for  reform,  ii. 

183 
"Sseculum  Obscurum,"  i.  164 
Saignet,  Guiilaume,  writes   Lamentatio 

ob  Coelibatum  Sacerdotum,ii.  25 
St.  Agatha,  shamelessness  of  nuns  at,  i. 

319 
St.   Albans,  shameless  immorality  of 

monks  of,  ii.  16 
St.  Andrews,  Archbishop  of,  at  baptism 

of  James  VI.,  ii.  161,  note 
St.  Asaphs,  Bishop  of,  sits  in  judgment  on 

married  priests,  ii.  125 
Sta.  Caterina  di  Pistoia,  ii.  304 
St.  Cornelius,  church  of,  at  Compi^gne, 

i.  326 
St.  Denis,  Council  of,  in  995,  i.  177  ;   ab- 
bey of,  disorders  in,  i.  319 
St.  Fara,  convent  of,i.  318-19 
St.  Francisco  de  Paula  of  Seville,  church 

of, case  of  "  solicitation"  in,  ii.  282 
St.  Gildas  de  Ruys,  abbey  of,  i.  319 
St.  lago   of  Compostella,  church    of,  1. 

374 
St.  Isidor  of  Seville,  i.  128 


404 


INDEX 


St.  John,  Knights  of,  i.  451  ;  Order  of, 

broken  up  in  England,  ii.  98 
St.  Marco,  preservation  of,  ii.  337 
St.  Michael,  Order  of,  i.  456 
St.  Norbert,  Order  of,  i.  319 
St.  Omer,  synod  of,  in  1099,  i*  ^14 
S.    Pelayo    de    Antealtaria,    abbot     of, 

paragon  of  brutish  sensuality,  i.  377 
St.  Peter's  of  Sens,  abbey  of,  i.  175 
St.  Eiquier,  abbey  of,  strict  rules  of,  ii. 

23,  note 
St.  Sabina,  Cardinal  of,  enforces  celibacy 

in  Sweden,  i.  303,  note 
St.  Stephen,  church  of,  in  Aretino,  i.  168 
St.  Toribio  of  Peru,  ii.  247 
St.  Ursmar,  married  canons  of,  i.  326 
St.    Vitus,    monks     of,     reformed     by 

Gregory  I.,  i.  127 
Saints,  number  of,  in  Benedictine  Order, 

i.  126 
Salamanca,  Council  of,  in  1335,  i.  381 
Salerno,  Council  of,  in  1596,  ii.  230 
Salvianus,   on   condition    of  morals,   i. 
85-6  ;  admires  chastity  of  barbarians, 
i.  131 
Salzburg,  disorders  of,   in   the   twelfth 
century,  i.  295  ;  synod  of,  in  1537,  ii. 
177  ;  in   1549,  ii.  190 ;  Archbishop  of, 
on   synod  at,   ii.    194  ;    exhorted  by 
Pius  v.,  ii.  224  ;    instructs  clergy  on 
morality,  ii.  232 
Sampson,  Thomas,  on  position  of  married 

clergy,  ii.  147 
Sanadon  of  Oleron  on  clerical  marriage, 

ii.  314 
Sdnchez  on  solicitation,  ii.  273 
Sanders,  on  Cranmer's  time-serving,  ii. 
114,  note ;   on    delay    in    authorising 
priestly   marriage,    ii.    137,  note ;    on 
wives  of  Elizabethan  clergy,  ii.  145 
Sandys,  Bishop,  on  delay  in  authorising 

priestly  marriage,  ii.  137 
Sangharama,  Buddhist,  i.  103 
Sangreal,  likeness  to  Patra  of  Buddhism, 

i.  23 
Sankhya,  philosophy  of,  i.   6  ;    Buddha 
reduces  philosophy  of,  to  a  religion,  i. 
6-7 
Sannazaro  on  Innocent  III.  and  Alex- 
ander VI.,  i.  428-9,  note 
Sannyasis,  class  of,  instituted  by  Brah- 

minism,  i.  7 
San  Severino,  Council  of,  ii.  230 
Santa  Clara  of  Jativa,  nuns  of,  and  con- 
fessors, ii.  269,  285 
Santaf^,  Council  of,  in  1556,  ii.  246 
Santiago,  Order  of,  i.  453 
Saoshyans,    the    Zend    Messiah,   i.    22, 

note 
Sarabaitaa,  vagabond  monks,  i.  122 
Saragossa,  Council  of,  in  381,  i.  107 
Sarah,  abbess,  fortitude  of,  i.  220,  note 
Sardinia,  civil  marriage  enacted  in,  ii. 
330 


Sarpi,  Fra  Paolo,  on  Council  of  Trent,  ii. 
201,  note,    204,    note;    on    Council    of 
Trent  and  priestly  marriage,  ii.  235 
Sarria,  Fray  Vicente,  brutal  superfluous 

questions  of,  in  confessional,  ii.  269 
Satan,  place  of,  in  a  characteristic  legend, 
i.    434 ;     in    legend    related    by    St. 
Thomas  of  Cantinpre,  i.  436 
Sausa,  de,  on  confession  and  solicitation, 

ii.  262 
Sauvestre,    M.,    estimates    number     of 
French     ecclesiastics,    ii.    313,    note ; 
gives   details  of  clerical  prosecutions 
(schools),  ii.  361 
Savonarola,  on  ecclesiastics  of  his  day, 
ii.  15,  note  ;  on  morals  in  nunneries,  ii. 
22;  on  priests  as  wolves  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing, ii.  253 ;  convent   of  (San  Marco), 
preserved  under  Victor  Emanuel,   ii. 
337 
Savoy,  harsh  measures  against  clergy  in, 

ii.  311 
Sbinco  of  Prague,  reforms  by,  i.  478 
Scandal  more  dreaded  than  sin,  ii.  243, 

250,  252,  259,  274,  351 
Scandals  of  agapetse,  i.  43 
Scandinavia,  morals  of  bishops  in,  ii.  2 
Scania,  demand  for  priestly  marriage  in, 

i.  301 
Scaren,  English  Bishop  of,  plunders  see, 

i.  338 
Schening,  Council  of,  in  1248,  i.  302 
Schieler,  "  Theory  and  Practice  of  the 

Confessional,"  ii.  277,  note,  355,  note 
Schism,  the  Great,  i.  426 
Schmalkalden  League  of,  ii.  67  ;  negotia- 
tions with  Henry  VIII.,  ii.  109,  113 
Schmidt,  Johann,  Bishop  of  Vienna,  ii. 

70,  note 
Schulte,  von,  and  the  "Old  Catholic" 

movement,  ii.  329 
Schweinf urth,  negotiations  at,  ii.  69 
Scipione  de'  Kicci  on  confessional,  ii.  304 
Scotland,  Church    of,    founded    by  St. 
Columba,  i.  185  ;  claim  of  see  of  York 
on,  i.  185 ;    celibacy  in  early  Church 
of,  i.  185  ;  position  of  concubines  in, 
i.  231,  note  ;   enforcement  of  celibacy 
in,  i.  367  ;    constitutions  of  Ottoboni 
disregarded  in,  i.   368  ;    Keformation 
in,  ii.  155  ;  fast  progress  of  Reforma- 
tion in,  ii.  159  ;  abrogation  of  celibacy 
in,  ii.  161-2 
Secrecy  of  inquiries  into  priestly  morals, 

ii.  351 
Seduction  of  nuns    made  a  capital  of- 
fence, i.  154;  of  penitents  by  confessors, 
ii.  252 
Segarelli,  Gherardo,  forms  heretical  sect, 

i.  471  ;  dreadful  death  of,  i.  472 
Segenf rid  of  Le  Mans,  evil  example  of,  i. 

175 
Selle,  Hendrik,  vengeance   of    heretics, 
against,  i.  470 


INDEX 


405 


Sendomir,  agreement  of,  i.  481 

Sens,  Archbishop  of,  at  Council  of  Trent, 

ii.  204 
Separation,  Law  of,  ii.  330 
Seraphic  Order,  the,  i.  438 
Seraphim  of   Gran  on  marriage,  i.  297-8 
Sergius  III.,  unconcealed  dissoluteness 

of,  i.  164 
Serfs,  ordination  of,  i.  178 
Serrao,  Bishop  of  Potenza,    on   priestly 

marriage,  ii.  300 
Servants,  priests'  wives  considered  as,  ii. 

145 
Servitude  of  sons  of  priests,  i.  178  ;  of 

wives  of  priests,  i.  221,  289 
Severus   repeals  Majorian's  laws,  i.  116, 

note 
Seville,  Council  of,  in  1512,  ii.  17  ;  Arch- 
bishop of,  in  1546,  ii.  176  ;  crowds  of 

women  accuse  priests  at,  ii.  259,  note 
Sextus,  Philosophus,  advocates  practice 

of  mutilation,  i.  30 
Shakespeare,  plain  speaking  of,  i.  432 
Shaving,  clergy  demur  as  to  regulations 

for,  ii.  231 
Shaxton,  Bishop,  opposed  to  Six  Articles, 

ii.  112,  note 
Sheep  farming.  Sir  Thomas  More  on,  ii. 

120,  note 
Shrewsbury,  hereditary  benefices  in,  i.  330 
Sicily,    monachism     reformed     in,     by 

Gregory  I.,  i.  127  ;  celibacy  in,  i.  138 
Siedeler,  Jacob,  married  priest,  fate  of, 

ii.  43 
Siegfrid,  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  a  trimmer 

regarding  celibacy,  i.    271  ;    troubles 

of,  in  matter  of  celibacy,  i.  274-6 
Siena,  Council  of,  in  1423,  ii.  10 
Siete  Partidas  (Las),   code  known  as,  i. 

14  ;  celibacy  enjoined  in,  i.  378 
Sigismund,  Emperor,  advocates  clerical 

marriage,  ii.  26 
Silesia,  heresy  of  John  of  Pirna   in,   i. 

472  ;   clerical  marriage  asked    for  in 

1831,  ii.  325 
Siliceo  of  Toledo,  first  reference  to  con- 
fessional box,  ii.  255 
Silvester  L,   supposed    Roman  Council 

held  by,  i.  50,  136 
Silvester  II.  on  celibacy,  i.  181 
Silvester  III.  elected  Pope  by  faction  of 

rebels,  i.  214 
Simancas,  Bishop,  on  married  priests,  ii. 

219 
Simoneta,  Cardinal,  ii.  215 
Simoniacal  priests,  sacraments  of,  i.  229, 

note 
Simony,    in    eleventh   century,   i.  215 ; 

condemned  under  heavy  penalties  at 

Mainz,  i.  220-1  ;  abandoned  at  Milan, 

i.  252  ;  Council  of  Milan  (1098)  severe 

on,  i.  261-2  ;  Gregory  VII.  inhibits,  i, 

271  ;   Lanfranc    represses,   i.  329-30  ; 

St.  Thomas  ^  Becket  attacks,  i.  345 


Simplicius,  St.,  of  Autun,  story  of,  related 
by  St.  Gregory  of  Tours,  i.  80 

Sin,  its  influence  on  priest  officiating  in 
sacraments,  i.  228  ;  mortal,  defined  by 
Wickcliffe,  i.  473-4 

Siriciuis,  supporting  celibacy,  does  not 
refer  to  Nicene^canon,  i.  49  ;  addresses 
epistle  to  Himerius,  i.  63 ;  urges 
celibacy,  i,  64-5  ;  denounces  Bonosus, 
i.  67  ;  condemns  Jovinian,  i.  69  ; 
makes  priestly  celibacy  compulsory  in 
Gaul  and  Spain,  i.  72 ;  orders  im- 
prisonment of  unchaste  monks  and 
nuns,  i.  114 

Sister,  residence  of,  with  priest  for- 
bidden, i.  156 

Sithieu  Abbey,  ii.  23,  note 

Sitten,  synod  of,  in  1500,  ii.  20 

Six  Articles,  the  [see  Articles) 

Sixtus  III.,  treatise  of,  on  chastity,  i. 
39 ;  trial  of,  for  seduction  of  nun, 
i.  86 

Sixtus  IV.,  vices  of,  i.  428 

Sixtus  V.  and  cases  of  guilty  Jesuits, 
ii.  261 

Slave,  children  of,  by  ecclesiastic 
emancipated,  ii.  246 

Slavery,  Christian,  by  Moors,  i.  442, 
note 

Slavery,  for  wives  of  priests,  i.  221,  289  ; 
for  sons  of  priests,  i.  178,  ii.  246-7  ;  for 
vagabonds,  under  Edward  VI.,  ii.   102 

Slaves,  female,  union  of,  with  priests, 
ii.  246 

Slavonic  Church,  connection  with  Greek, 
i.  290,  note ;  adherence  of,  to  priestly 
marriage,  i.  300 

Sleiden  on  organised  concubinage,  i. 
440,  note 

Sleswick,  clerical  morals  in  fifteenth 
century,  ii.  20 

Smaragdus  on  monastic  impostors,  i. 
129 

Smith,  Dr.  Richard,  on  priestly  mar- 
riage, ii.  119 

Smith,  Sir  Thomas,  on  celibacy,  ii.  148, 
note 

Smithfield,  images  burned  at,  ii.  108 

Socrates,  relates  story  of  Paphnutius, 
i.  50  ;  on  observance  of  celibacy,  i.  91 

Soissons,  synod  of,  in  744,  i  148  ;  Mani- 
chgeism  at,  in  11 14,  i.  244 

Solicitation,  by  priests,  ii.  251-96  ; 
cases  of,  to  be  tried  by  Inquisition, 
ii.  257-8  ;  evasion  of  rules  against, 
ii.  262,  263  ;  Gregory  XV.  defines,  ii. 
264  ;  diflacult  to  induce  disclosure  of, 
ii.  270,  281  ;  in  Spain,  woman  excom- 
municated on  refusal  to  disclose, 
ii.  271  ;  where  woman  is  tempter,  ii. 
277  ;  by  priests,  wide  range  of  punish- 
ments for,  ii.  280,  281  ;  means  dis- 
ability for  saying  Mass,  ii.  281  ;  self- 
denunciation  for,  ii.  282  ;  punishment 


406 


INDEX 


for,  disproportionate,  ii.  287  ;  sentence 
for,  read  with  closed  doors,  ii.  287  ; 
punishment  for,  varies  for  regulars 
and  seculars,  ii.  287-8  ;  guilty  Jesuits 
quietly  sent  away,  ii.  261  ;  Labata, 
Marcen,  and  Lopez  imprisoned  for, 
ii.  261  ;  case  of  Fray  Vicente  Gronzdlez, 
ii.  269 ;  case  of  Maestro  Diego  de 
Agumanes,ii.  269  ;  suspicion  of  heresy 
implied  in,  ii.  280 ;  Dr.  Augustin 
Velda,  rector  La  Sallana,  accused  of, 
ii.  282,  note ;  Dr.  Joseph  Soriano  of 
Vinaroz  accused  of,  ii.  287  ;  Fray 
Thomas  Maldonado,  light  sentence 
for,  ii.  289 ;  Fray  Miguel  Martin  de 
Eugenic,  severer  sentence  for,  ii.  289  ; 
Padre  Antonio  Escobar,  S.J.,  repri- 
manded for,  ii.  290 ;  Padre  Vilarde,  S.J., 
implicated  in,  ii.  290 ;  Bernardo  de 
Amor  guilty  of,  ii.  290  ;  Felipe  Garcia 
Pacheco  leniently  treated  for,  ii.  290  ; 
Dr.  Pedro  Luceta,  foul  case  of,  ii.  290  ; 
Geronimo  Gonzalez  of  Kequeijo,  case 
of,  ii.  291  ;  Fray  Antonio  de  la 
Porteria  y  Vela,  case  of,  ii.  291  ; 
Fray  Nicholas  de  Madrid  denounces 
himself  for,  ii.  291  ;  Fernando  de 
Vald6s,  case  of,  ii.  292  ;  Fray  Manuel 
Pablo  Herraiz,  case  of,  ii.  293  ;  Padre 
Fray  Francisco  Gomez  Somoerto,  case 
of,  ii.  293  ;  in  modern  times,  ii.  350  ; 
case  of,  in  1898,  ii.  353-4 
Somerset,  Protector,  and  the  Protestants, 

ii.  116 
Sons  of  priests  [see  Children) 
Sorbonne,  the,  condemns  Jean  d'Huillier, 
i.  477,  note  ;  condemns  Jean  Laillier, 
ii.   29  ;   condescends  to  no  argument 
with  Melanchthon,  ii.   71  ;   condemns 
commentaries    by   Lef^vre   d'Etaples, 
ii.  150 ;  pronounces  on  solicitation  in 
confessional,  ii.  270-1 
Soriano,  Dr.  Joseph,  accused  of  solicita- 
tion and  suborning,  ii.  287 
Sormitz,  escape  of  nuns  from,  ii,  51 
Southampton,  Earl  of,  ii.  116 
Sozomen  relates  story  of  Paphnutius,  i. 

50 
Spain,  Inquisition  in  {see  Inquisition)  ; 
celibacy,  enforced  in,  by  Siricius,  i.  72  ; 
disregarded  in,  i.  64  ;  continual  efforts 
for  celibacy  in,  i.  83  ;  morals  of,  in  fifth 
century,  i.  84  ;  monasticism  in  seventh 
century,  i.  128  ;  celibacy  in  Arian 
Churchpf,  i.  135  ;  reforms  in,  attempted 
by  Catholicism,  i.  135  ;  concubines, 
position  in,  i.  231,  note  ;  enforcement 
of  celibacy  in,  i.  369  ;  priestly  mar- 
riage universal  in,  i.  370  ;  delay  in 
abrogating  priestly  marriage  in,  i.  373  ; 
immorality  of  clergy  in,  i.  377  ;  military 
orders  in,  i.  453  ;  demoralisation  in 
fifteenth  century,  ii.  17  ;  Ximenes  and 
Franciscans  of,  ii.  21  ;   morals  of,  in 


sixteenth  century,  ii.  175,  176  ;  concu- 
binage of  ecclesiastics  in,  236 
Spain,  colonial  Church  of,  ii.  245  ;  abuse 
of  confessional  in,  ii,  257  ;  solicitation 
systematically    practised    in,  ii.    294  ; 
civil    marriage    agitated   in,  ii.  331  ; 
denounced  by  clergy  in,  ii.  331 
Spalatin  and  priestly  marriages,  ii.  46,  47, 
note  ;  letter  from  Luther  to,  upon  nuns, 
ii.  53 
Spaldwick,  vicar  of,  scandal  caused  by,  ii. 

134,  note 
Spanish  colonies  (see  Colonies) 
Spelman  believes  in  orders  of   married 

and  unmarried  monks,  i.  201 
Spifame,  Bishop  of  Nevers,  married,  ii. 

152,  note 
Spiridon,  Bishop  of  Cyprus,  married,  ii. 

42 
Spiti,  number  of  lamas  in,  i.  103 
Straddha,  i.  7 

Standards  of  morality,  i.  324,  431 
Stapleton,  admiring  biographer  of  More, 

ii.  80,  note 
Stephen    IX.,    Pope,   installed,    i.    225; 
forces  Damiani  to  become  Bishop  of 
Ostia  ;  i.  225  ;  suffering  Milanese  clergy 
apply  to,  i.  250 
Stephen  of  England,  turbulent  reign  of, 

i.  342  ;  siege  of  Devizes,  i.  341 
Sterckx,  Archbishop,   Mechlin,    admon- 
ished by  Helsen,  ii.  346 
Stoer,    Stephan,    pastor   of    Liestal,  on 

marriage,  ii.  46,  note 
Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  condemns 
Thomas    Patmore,    ii.    104 ;     on    sup- 
pression of  monasteries,  ii.  92 
Strappado  in  Inquisition,  ii.  284 
Strassburg,  popular  protection  of  married 
priests  in,  ii.  48  ;  synods  of,  in  1548  and 
1549,  ii.  190 
Stromata,    third  book,   by  Clement  of 

Alexandria,  i.  20,  note 
Strype,  account  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Car- 
thufians,  ii.  85-6  ;  on  career  of  Dr. 
London,  ii.  97,  note  ;  on  Henry  VIII. 
and  priestly  marriage,  ii.  104,  note  ; 
Cranmer's  second  marriage,  ii.  114, 
note  ;  Dr.  Kichard  Smith,  ii.  119,  note  ; 
clergy,  ii.  122  ;  dispensations  for  mar- 
riage, ii.  209,  note  ;  exhumation,  Peter 
Martyr's  wife,  ii.  132,  note  ;  married 
clergy  of  London,  ii.  139  ;  married 
clergy  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  ii.  141, 
note  ;  Sir  John  Bourne  and  Dr.  Sandys, 
ii.  148,  note 
Sturmius,    Balthazar,    marriage    of,   ii. 

45 
Sub-deacons,  allowed  to  marry,  i.  28  ; 
forbidden  to  marry,  in  530,  i.  92  ;  to 
separate  from  wives,  i.  138  ;  marriage 
of,  forbidden,  in  952,  i.  171  ;  removed 
when  married  from  benefices,  i.  289, 
note ;  celibacy  of,  in  Dalmatia,  i.  299  ; 


INDEX 


407 


marriage  of,  in  Hungary,  i.  299;  canons 
suspended  for,  in  Austria,  i.  300  ;  celi- 
bacy of,  in  Denmark,  i,  303  ;  rules  for, 
in  England,  i.  332  ;  exceptions  for.  in 
favour  of  immorality,  i.  395 

Sub-deacon  Bossaert  of  Flanders,  hard 
case  of,  i.  398-9 

Suchuen,  abuse  of  confessional  in,  ii. 
276 

Suczinsky,  Dean,  marries  Baroness  Gazc- 
waska  and  joins  Old  Catholics,  ii.  329 

Suffolk,  Duke  of ,  suppresses  insurrection, 
ii.  94 

Suger  of  St,  Denis  imprisons  Eon  de 
I'Etoile,  i.  466 

Suidger  of  Bamberg,  afterwards  Clement 
III.,  i.  214 

Sulpicius  Severus,  St.,  owner  of  slave, 
Vigilantius,  i.  70  ;  inclined  to  favour 
reforms  of  Vigilantius,  i.  72 

Sulpitius  of  Bourges,  i.  132,  note 

"  Sum  of  Scripture,  The,"  ii.  103,  note 

Suppression,  of  monasteries,  in  Germany, 
ii.  53,  63-4,  335  ;  in  England,  ii.  88-4, 
99 ;  means  adopted  for,  ii.  97  ;  of 
monasteries  not  carried  out  in  Austria, 
ii.  335 ;  of  monasteries  in  France,  ii. 
335  ;  in  Spain,  ii.  336  ;  in  Italy,  ii. 
337  ;  in  Paraguay,  Brazil, and  Mexico, 
ii.  338  ;  in  New  Granada,  Venezuela, 
and  Eucador,  ii.  339 

Susani,  Marquardo  de,  work  of,  uphold- 
ing celibacy,  ii.  217,  note 

Suzor  of  Tours,  pastoral  on  priestly  mar- 
riage, ii.  314 

Swabia,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i. 
277 

Sweden,  enforcement  of  celibacy  in,  i. 
302  ;  Englishmen,  as  bishops  in,  i.  338  ; 
case  of  English  bishop  in,  i.  338 

Swithun,  St.,  openly  married,  dispensa- 
tion from  Leo  III.,  i.  190 

Switzerland,  recognised  system  of 
priestly  concubinage,  i.  440  ;  move- 
ment in,  by  Zwingli,  ii.  45  ;  immorality 
of  priests  in  sixteenth  century,  ii. 
57  ;  case  of  priest's  wife  disowned  in, 
ii.  325  ;  Old  Catholic  movement  in,  ii. 
329 

Syllabus  of  1864  on  dissolution  of  mar- 
riage, i.  390,  7iote 

Symmachus,  Pope,  prohibits  marriage 
of  nuns,  i.  123 ;  on  confessors  and 
penitents,  ii,  252 

Synesius,  Bishop  of  Ptolemais,  case  of, 
i.  90 

Synodicon  in  Gallia  Reformata,  Quick, 
ii.  151 

Szamland,  Bishop  of,  ii.  63 

Taas,  nominal  reconciliation  of  Hussites 

of,  i.  477,  7iote 
Taborites,    i.    479 ;    no    chance    for,  in 

England,  ii.  78 


Tacitus  on  morals  of  Germans,  i.  131 
Taillard    resists    priestly    marriage    in 

Prussian  Poland,  i.  16 
Talasius  of  Angers  on  celibacy,  i.  82 
Talesperianus  of  Lucca,  charter  of,  i,  143 
Tallemant  des  Reaux,  ii.  242 
Talleyrand  secularises  Church  property, 

ii.  307  ;  marries,  ii.  317 
Talmadge,  "  Letters  from  Florence,"  ii. 

324,  7iote 
Talon,  Omer,  on  marriage  of  apostates, 

ii.  154,  7iote 
Tapas,  virtue  of,  i.  7 
Tarragona,  Council  of,  in  1336,  i.  381 
Tatianus,  heresy  of,  i.  20 
Taxes  of  the  penitentiary,  i.  411,  ii.  55, 

175 
Tedaldo,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  i.   259  ; 

leader  of  disaffected  bishops,  i.  259 
Templars,    military  Order    of,    i.    451  ; 

accusations  against,  i.  453 
Temporalities  of  Church  endangered  by 

marriage,  i.  61,  ii.  28 
Tenure  of  chastity,  benefices  held  by,  i. 

176 
Terbinthus,  i.  34,  note 
Terouane,  marriage  of  priests  in,  i.  326 
Terror,  position  of  priest  under  Reign  of, 

ii.  308  ;  persecution  of  celibacy  under 

Reign  of,  ii.  311  ;  number  of  priestly 

marriages  under  Reign  of,  ii.  313 
Tertullian,  opposed  to  second  marriages, 

i.   24,  25  ;    on   perpetual  virginity  of 

Virgin,  i.  67,  note  ;  on  merits  of  widows 

and  virgins,  i.  104,  note 
Test,  marriage,  of  civil    supremacy,  ii. 

311 
Tetradius,  St.,  rule  of,  i.  125 
Tetzel,  Luther  on,  ii.  40 
Teutonic    Knights,  Order  of,  i.  457 ; 

Baron  of  Heydeck,  of,  ii.  62 ;   tribes, 

virtue  of,  i.  86 
Theodore  ^  Niem,  on  John  XXIII.,  i.  427, 

note  ;  on  Scandinavian  bishops,  ii.  2 
Theodore  of  Canterbury,  Penitential  of, 

on  marriage,  i.  39,  note 
Theodore  of  Verdun  opposes  policy  of 

Gregory  VII.,  i.  277-8 
Theodore     Studita,    St.,     on    monastic 

morals,  i.  121 
Theodoric    Vrie    on     Teutonic    clergy, 

ii.  3 
Theodosius  the  Great,  edict  of,  against 

Manichseans,  i.  34  ;    orders  monks  to 

remain  in  desert,  i.  119  ;  repeals  order, 

i.  119  ;  prohibits  shaving  of  nuns,  i. 

114,  note 
Theodotus  of  Corvey,  success  of,  i.  269, 

note 
Theodulf  of  Orleans  on  incest,  i.  156 
Theodwin  and  Albert  (Cardinals)  at  Av- 

ranches,  i.  394,  nx)te 
Theophilus  of   Alexandria,  rigour  of,  i. 

434,  note 


408 


INDEX 


Theophylact  on  unius  uxoris  vir,  i.  27, 
note 

Therapeutae,  i.  10,  note 

Thessalonica,  celibacy  enforced  in,  i.  91 

Thibaut  of  Etampes  on  children  of 
priests,  i.  335 

Thirty  Years*  War,  the,  ii.  237' 

Thomas  Aquinas,  St.  {see  Aquinas) 

Thomas  k  Becket,  on  simony,  i.  345 ; 
Henry  II.  absolved  at  Avranches  for 
murder  of,  i.  894 

Thomas  of  Cantinpr6,  legend  related  by, 
i.  436 

Thomas  of  Walden  on  Wickliffe,  i.  474 

Tibet,  number  of  monks  in,  i.  103 

Tibullus  on  purity  required  for  sacri- 
fice, i.  42,  note 

Tiers-Etat  supreme  in  National  Assem- 
bly, ii.  307 

Tithes  seized  by  laity,  i.  310 

Toledo,  first  Council  of,  i.  115  ;  in 
398,  ii.  252  ;  forbids  familiarity 
between  virgins  and  confessors,  ii. 
252;  Council  of,  in  400,  i.  76  ;  in  531, 
i.  84,  note ;  in  589,  i.  84,  note ;  in  597 
and  633,  i.  84,  note  ;  in  653,  i.  84,  note ; 
in  675,  i.  84,  note  ;  Archbishop  Car- 
ranza  of,  on  immorality,  ii.  255  ;  Arch- 
bishop Siliceo  of,  first  reference  to  box 
used  in  confessional,  ii.  255  ;  tribunal 
of  deprives  Bernardo  de  Amor,  ii.  290 

Toribio,  St.,  of  Peru,  ii.  247  ;  on  corrup- 
tion of  clergy,  ii.  247,  249 

Torn6  of  Bourges  publicly  married,  ii. 
310 

Tortosa,  Council  of,  in  1429,  i.  384 

Toulouse,  Manichasism  at,  in  1018,  i.  245  ; 
Council  of,  in  1056,  i.  306 

Tournon,  Cardinal  Archbishop,  ii.  173 

Tours,  Council  of,  in  460,  i.  83,  note  ;  in 
567,  i.  134  ;  in  925,  i.  167  ;  in  1060, 
i.  232,  306  ;  in  1096,  i.  317,  note  ;  in 
1 163,  i.  394  ;  in  1583,  ii.  240 

Trani,  married  Bishop  of,  deposed,  i. 
232 ;  nearly  all  priests  in,  with  families, 
ii.  15 

Treason,  English  abbots  attainted  of, 
ii.  97 

Treglia,  Andrea,  case  of,  settles  question 
of  priestly  marriage  for  Naples,  ii.  333 

Treguier,  residence  of  priests'  relatives 
forbidden  in,  i.  410 

Trent,  Council  of,  ii.  171-220  ;  expecta- 
tions regarding,  ii.  72  ;  authorises 
dispensations  for  married  priests,  ii. 
74  ;  abuses  laid  before,  by  Sebastian 
of  Portugal,  ii.  175  ;  Lutheran  heresy 
regarded  as  due  to  priestly  immor- 
ality, ii.  178  ;  sessions  of,  often  inter- 
rupted, ii,  182 ;  proposals  on  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  199  ;  three  electors  unite 
in  appeals  to,  ii.  201  ;  diplomacy  pre- 
vents serious  debate  on  celibacy,  ii. 
202  ;  discussion  at,  on  power  of  Pope 


to  dispense,  ii.  203  ;  canons  on  matri- 
mony, ii.  204,  207  ;  failure  of  reforms 
of,  ii.  211  ;  canons  not  received  in 
France,  ii.  222,  note  ;  enforcement  of 
canons  of,  in  Utrecht,  ii.  230 ;  on 
confessor  conscious  of  mortal  sin, 
ii.  245  ;  on  age  for  ordination,  ii.  304  ; 
on  gift  of  chastity,  ii.  255,  340 
Trent,  Council,  Congregation  of  the,  ii. 

350 
Treves,  persecution  of  married  clergy  in, 
i.   279  ;  morals   of  clergy  in  twelfth 
century,  i.  296  ;  Archbishop  of,  and 
immoral  priests,   ii.    187  ;    effort    for 
clerical  marriage  in,  ii.  325  ;  synod  of, 
in  1548,  ii.  187,  note;  in  1549,  ii.  188, 
note 
Trialogus,  Wickliffe,  i.  475 
Tribur,  Assembly  of,  in  1076,  i,  283 
Tridentine  canons,  ii.  153,  232 
Trimarchi  on  a  reserved  bull,  ii.  296 
Trinidad  and  Merced,  Orders  of,  i.  383 
Trithemius,  Abbot,  describes  Benedictine 

monastery,  ii.  89 
Tropea,  sister  of  Pier-Leone,  i.  424 
Trosley,  Council  of,  in  909,  i.  160,  note 
Troyes,  synod  of,  in  1107,  i.  292;  11 28, 

i.  451 
Trugillo,  Crist<5bal,  guilty  priest,  quietly 

sent  away,  ii.  261 
Tsadukim  (Sadducees)  opposed  to  theory 

of  future  life,  i.  8 
Tudeschi,  Nicholas  (Panormitanus),  advo- 
cates priestly  marriage,  ii.  26 
Turin,  Council  of,  i.  77 
Turner,  John,  penance  of,  for  marriage,  ii. 

128 
Tyndale,  "  The  Obedience  of  a  Cristen 
Man,"  ii.  103,  note 

Ulloa,  Don  Antonio  de,  ii.  249 

Ulric,  St.,  of  Augsburg  addresses  Pope 
on  celibacy,  i.  171  ;  first  subject  of 
papal  canonisation,  i.  172,  note 

Ulric,  Duke  of  Bohemia,  makes  St.  Pro- 
copius  abbot  of  Zagow,  i.  210 

Ulric,  abbot  of  Tegernsee,  testifies  to 
polygamy  by  priests,  i.  211 

Ultramontanism,  ii.  234,  329  ;  trium- 
phant over  Gallicanism  and  Jansenism, 
ii.  363 

Umbilicarii,  i.  8,  note 

Umiliati,  struggle  with  St.  Charles  Bor- 
romeo,  ii.  228  ;  Order  of,  broken  up,  ii. 
228 

Unchastity,  punishment  of,  for  monks 
and  nuns,  i.  147;  forgiveness  for,  in 
false  decretals,  i.  154-5 ;  punished  as 
homicide,  i.  196 

United  States,  "  Old  Catholic  "movement 
in,  ii.  330  ;  no  legal  impediment  in, 
to  priestly  marriage,  ii.  334  ;  report  of 
Italian  committee  of  American  Epis- 
copal Church,  ii.  348,  note 


INDEX 


409 


University  fellows,  celibacy  of,  ii.  143 
Urban  II.,  on  sacraments  of  sinful  priests, 
i.  229,  note  •,  creates  Conrad  king  of 
Lombardy,  i.  260  ;  reconciles  Milanese 
clergy,  i.  261,  note  ;  holds  Council  of 
Piacenza,  i.  261  ;  publishes  decree 
against  married  priests,  i.  289;  reduces 
wives  of  priests  to  slavery,  i,  289  ; 
appealed  to  by  Flemish  priests,  i.  314; 
and  the  Crusades,  i.  316  ;  decretal  of, 
in  1090,  i.  385 
Urban  III.  enforces  celibacy  in  Dalmatia, 

i.  299 
Urban  VIII,,  on  abuse  of  confessional, 
ii,  256 ;  issues  encyclical  on  abuse  of 
confessional,  ii.  270 
Urbino,  Council  of,  in  1569,  ii.  230 
Urgel,  Council  of,  in  1286,  on  priestly 
immorality,!.  380;  in  1364, threatens  ex- 
communication to  disobedient  priests, 
i.  381 
Urraca,  Queen,  i.  375 
Useria,  supposed   wife   of   Eriberto    of 

Milan,  i.  245,  note 
Utopia,  Sir  Thomas  More,  ii.  80,  note 
Utraquists  (Calixtins)  of  Bohepiia,  i.  480 
Utrecht,    condition    of    nunneries    in, 
fourteenth  century,  i.  422,  note  ;  recep- 
tion of  Council  of  Trent  in,  ii.  230 ; 
Assembly  of,  in  1076,  i.  277-8  ;  synod 
of,  in  1568,  ii.  230 

VArfABOND  monks,  i.  112,  121-2,  128 
Vagabondage,  Act  to  punish,  ii.  94 
Valdana,  Fray  Juan  de,  case  of,  ii.  254 
Valdelamar,  Alonso  de,  case  of,  ii.  254 
Valdes,    Inquisitor-General,  Archbishop 

of  Seville,  ii.   176  ;    receives   bull   of 

Paul  IV.  on  solicitation,  ii.  258 
Valdes,    Fernando    de,   many  cases   of 

solicitation,  ii.  292 
Valencia,  Council  of,  in  1255,  i.  379  ;  in 

1565,  orders  use  of   confessional  box 

in  confessions,  ii.  255 
Valens,  persecution  by,  i.  108,  note 
Valentinian  (Emperor;  punishes  immoral 

ecclesiastics,  i.  60 
Valentinus  originates  mystic  libertinism 

of  Gnostics,  i.  20 
Valesians,  sect  of,  i.  29 
Vallis  Dei,  rigid  asceticism  of  a  monk  of, 

i.  448 
Vallombrosa,  monks  of,  i.  213 
Vanaprasthas,    class    of,    invented     by 

Brahminism,  i.  7 
Varahran  I.  persecutes  Manicheeism,  i. 

33 
Vargas,  reports  apprehensions  to  Philip 

II.,  ii.  200,  202,note  ;  Philip's  rigorous 

policy  executed  by  means  of,  ii.  214 
Vatican,  number  of  women  in,  ii.  344  ; 

resolved  to  rule  or  to  ruin,  ii.   329  ; 

Council  in   1870,  ii.    328  ;    dogma  of 

papal  infallibility  at  Council  of,  ii.  328 

VOL.  II. 


Vedas,  doctrine  of  the,  respecting  Tapas, 
i.  7 

Veil,  taking  of  the,  a  marriage  with 
Christ,  i.  114 

Velda,  Dr.  Augustin,  of  La  Sallana, 
accused  of  solicitation,  ii.  282,  note 

Venality  of  officials,  i.  337,  346,  357,  384, 
397,  406,  411,  421,  429,  ii.  12,  19,  61 

Venantius  of  Syracuse,  i.  127,  note 

Venezuela,  suppression  of  monasteries 
in,  ii.  339 

Venice,  relaxation  of  canons  in,  i.  241  ; 
number  of  priests  in,  ii.  306 

Ventimiglia,  nuncio,  negotiates  with 
Maximilian  II.,  ii.  212 

Vercelli,  troubles  of  married  priests  in, 
i.  174 

Verdun,  reform  of  monks  in,  i,  318  ; 
Bishop  of,  at  Council  of  Trent,  ii.  204 

Veringen,  case  of  Count  and  Countess 
of,  i.  280-1 

Verneuil,  synod  of,  in  755,  i.  151 

Vernon,  Council  of,  in  845,  i.  158 

Verona,  reforming  Bishop  of,  ii.  254 

Verses,  satirical,  on  clergy,  i.  351-2 

Vertfeuil,  extent  of  heresy  in,  i.  464 

Vestal  virgins,  i.  43 

Victor  II.,  attempts  to  reform,  i.  224  ; 
enforces  celibacy  in  France,  i.  306 

Victor  III.  on  Italian  Church,  i.  210 

Vienna,  Council  of,  in  1267,  i.  300 

Vienne,  Council  of,  in  1060,  i.  232 ;  in 
13 12,  i.  470  ;  Charles  de  Marillac  of, 
on  ecclesiastical  discipline,  ii.  238 

Vigilantius,  slave  of  St.  Sulpicius  Severus, 
i.  70  ;  sent  to  St.  Paulinus  and  St. 
Jerome,  i.  71  ;  leaves  St.  Jerome  and 
denounces  celibacy,  i.  71  ;  spread  of 
doctrines  of,  i.  72  ;  abandoned  by  St. 
Sulpicius  and  St.  Exuperius,  i.  73 

Vihara,  Buddhist  monastery,  i.  101 

Villiers,  Abbe,  defends  celibacy,  ii.  299 

Villiers  de  Tlsle,  Adam,  i.  457 

Virginity,  extravagantly  praised  by 
orthodox  fathers,  i.  36  ;  compared  with 
marriage,  i.  37,  38  ;  laudation  of,  by 
St.  John  Chrysostom,  i.  90  ;  exhorta- 
tions on,  i.  105,  note-;  Bede  and  Aid- 
helm  uphold,  i.  187 ;  praised  by 
Damiani,  i.  240  ;  homily  of  thirteenth 
century  on,  i.  431  ;  extolled  by  Laur- 
entius  Gallus,  i.  434,  note  ;  Luther 
writes  on,  ii.  40  ;  Dr.  Sandys  of  Wor- 
cester on,  ii.  148  ;  Panzini  praises, 
though  opposes  enforced  celibacy,  ii. 
327 

Virgins,  priests  to  marry  no  women  but, 
i.  27 ;  some  reformers  regard  as  only 
wives  for  priests,  ii.  53 

Visconti,  nuncio,  correspondence  on 
Trent  Council,  ii.  203 

Visitation,  of  monasteries  by  Archbishop 
Morton,  ii.  16  ;  of  religious  houses  in 
Tuscany,  ii.  303 

2D 


410 


INDEX 


Vitalis  of  Mortain   preaches  reform,   i. 
311 

Vitry,  Jacques  de,  case  of,  ii.  14-15 

Vitus,  St.,  monks  of,  thought  themselves 
free  to  marry,  i.  127 

Vladislas  II.,  Diet  held  by,  ii.  19  ;  on 
clerical  immorality,  ii.  19 

Vows  of  chastity,  when  introduced,  were 
voluntary,  i.  30  ;  barely  tolerated  in 
early  Church,  i.  40  ;  at  first  temporary 
in  character,  i.  1,  105;  gradually  re- 
garded as  permanent,  i.  115  ;  treated 
by  Gregory  the  Great  as  irrevocable, 
i.  127 ;  ordered  for  sub-deacons,  i. 
138  ;  infanticide  one  result  of,  i.  156  ; 
more  potent  than  sacrament  of  mar- 
riage, i.  386,  396  ;  of  military  orders, 
i.  451 ;  Luther  on,  "De  Votis  Monasti- 
cus,"  ii,  44;  minimum  age  for  taking,  ii. 
302  ;  declared  void  in  France  in  1790, 
ii.  307  :  release  from  impossible  under 
civil  marriage  law,  ii.  334 

Vrie,  Theodoric,  denounces  Teutonic 
clergy,  ii.  3 

Wahu,  Dr.,  tabulated  list  by,  of  clerical 

prosecutions,  ii.  360 ;   on  prosecution 

of  teachers,  in  monastic   schools,  ii. 

361 
Wake,   Archbishop,   correspondence  of, 

with  Dupin,  ii,  298,  note 
Waldemar  I.  of  Denmark,  i.  301 
Waldemar    II.    on    concubines,   i.    231, 

note 
Walden,  marriage  of  abbot  of,  ii.  105 
Waldenses,  i.  460 
Waldeck,    Count  of,    treatment  of,   by 

Church,  ii.  64 
Wales,  celibacy  in  early  Church  of,  i.  188; 

state  of    Church  in  ninth  century,  i. 

198-9  ;  priestly  marriage  in  thirteenth 

century,  i.  347  ;  persistence  of  priestly 

marriage  in,  i.  369 
Walter  of  Orleans  on  residence  of  female 

relations  with  priests,  i.  157,  note 
Warham,   Archbishop,  visitation   of,  ii. 

81 
Warsaw,  synod  of,  ii.  209,  note 
Wartburg,  Luther's  enforced  seclusion 

in,  ii.  42 
Watten,  priory  of,  i.  313 
Wedlock  {see  Marriage) 
Weiss  Berg,  battle  of,  in  1620,  i.  481 
Wenceslas  (King)  of  Bohemia,  reforms 

by,  i.  479 
Wendt,  the  Rev.,  heavy  sentence  for  im- 
morality, ii.  360,  note 
Wergild  for  son  of  a  bishop,  i.  186  ;  for 

priest  in  Saxon  England,  i.  201,  note  ; 
for  priest  in   Northern  Germany,   i. 
416 
West,   first  General  Council  of  the,  in 
1 123,  i.  385 


Western  monachism,  i.  121,  124 
Westminster,  Council  of,  in  11 27,  i.  340: 

in  1 1 38,  i.  341 
Westmoreland,  Earl  of,  insurrection  of, 

in  1569,  ii.  148 
Weston,  Dr.,  tells  a  married  priest  Queen 
Mary  is  not  to  be  "  censed  "  by  him,  ii. 
123 
Wetzer  und  Welte,  ii.  336,  note 
Wexford,  immoral  priests  of,  i.  364-5 
Whitby,  synod  of,  in  664,  i.  1 85,  note 
Wiburn,  Percival,  on  wives  of  clergy,  ii. 

147 
Wicelius  (George  Witzel)  embraces  Lu- 

theranism,  ii.  210 
Wickliffe,  on  sacraments  of  sinful  priests, 
i.  230,  note,  460 ;  reforming  zeal  of,  i. 
473 ;     views  on  celibacy  a  disputed 
point,  i.  474 
Widows,  priests  forbidden  to  marry,  i.  27; 
order  of,  in  primitive  Church,  i.  103  ; 
compared  with  virgins,  i.  37  ;  vows  of 
chastity  taken  for  shameful  reasons  by, 
i.  142-3 
Wied,  Hermann  von,  attempts  at  reform 
by,  ii.  176-7  ;  embraces  Lutheranism, 
ii.  177,  note 
Wilfreda,  St.,  i.  193 
Wilhelm,  Archduke  of  Austria,  i,  458 
William  of   Bavaria  on  Church  corrup- 
tions, ii.,  190 
William  of  Canterbury,  letter  from  St. 

Anselm,  i.  332 
William  of  Cantilupe  enforces  celibacy, 

i.  351 
William  of  Cologne  forbids  marriage  of 

monks,  i.  422,  note 
William  of  Hilderness,  i.  470 
William  of   Malmesbury  on  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Church,  i.  205,  note 
William  of  Newburgh  on  Eon  de  I'Etoile, 

i.  A6Q,note 
William  of  Orange  on  Council  of  Trent, 

ii.  231,  note 
William  of  Paderborn  fails  to  reform,  i. 

422 
William  of  St.  Sabina,  legate  to  Spain,  i. 

380 
William  of    Strassburg  excommunicates 

married  priests,  ii.  48 
William  the  Conqueror,  enforces  celibacy 
in  Normandy,  i.  308  ;  permits  marriage 
in  Brittany,  i.  311  ;  neglects  reform  in 
England,  i.  328 
William    the    Lion,    on    concubines,   i. 
231,   note ;    persecutes   the  clergy,   i. 
368 
Willibrod,  St.,  asceticism  and'holy  life  of, 

i.  142 
Winchester,  reform  of  monastery  at,  i. 
195  ;    Council  of,  ini  1070,  i.  329  ;  in 
1076,  i.  330 
Windsor,  synod  of,  in  1070,  i.  329 


INDEX 


411 


Wine  of  eucharist,  in  early  Church,  i.  35  ; 
abstinence  from,  not  recommended,  i. 
40 

"Wine  and  women,"  Father  Miiller  on, 
ii.  Si\,note 

Wishart,  George,  tried  for  heresy,  ii. 
166 

Wisigoths,  laws  of,  on  Church  property, 
i.  137 

Wisigoths  of  Spain,  immorality  of 
Church  of,  i.  135 

Witgar  of  Mendlesham,  i.  343 

Witnesses,  ordeal  for,  i.  159-60  ;  married 
priests  not  admitted  as,  i.  359 

Wittenberg,  Luther  nails  his  ninety-five 
propositions  to  church  door,  ii.  39  ; 
burns  books  of  canon  law  at,  ii. 
41  ;  monastery  doors  thrown  open 
at,  ii.  44 

Witzel,  George,  twice  changes  religion, 
ii.  210 

Wives  of  clerics,  adulterous,  to  be  put 
away,  i.  27  ;  rated  below  maidens,  i. 
38  ,  forbidden  at  Council  of  Elvira,  i. 
43  ;  not  forbidden  at  Council  of  Nicaea, 
i.  46-7  ;  forbidden  by  Damasus.  i.  63  ; 
forbidden  by  Siricius,  i.  63-4  ;  for- 
bidden in  Gaul  and  Spain,  i.  76-7  ; 
permitted  in  Eastern  Church,  i.  91,  94  ; 
through  the  fourth  century,  i.  48,  53, 
59,  82  ;  wives  of  bishops,  retention  of, 
i.  90  ;  to  be  separated,  i.  95  ;  wives  of 
clerics,  custom  in  Russia  regarding,  i. 
97-8  ;  under  the  Franks,  i.  132-3  ;  in 
Gothic  Spain,  i.  135  ;  to  be  treated,  as 
sisters,  i.  139-140  ;  cause  deprecia- 
tion of  property,  i.  167  ;  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  times,  i.  203-4  ;  fidelity  of,  i. 
238  ;  sufferings  of,  i.  280  ;  reduced  to 
slavery,  i.  289;  seizure  of,  threatened,  i. 
314;  treatment  of  in  England,  i.  332, 
337,  350  ;  assist  at  altar  in  Germany, 
i.  392  ;  liable  to  death  under  Six 
Articles,  ii.  112  ;  position  of,  in  Eliza- 
bethan Church,  ii.  145-6  ;  assumed  to 
be  serving  women,  ii.  145  ;  vilified  at 
synod  of  Osnabruck,  ii.  233  ;  church- 
ing not  allowed  for,  ii.  315 

Wolff.  Christian,  on  Paphnutius,  i.  52 

Wolfgang,  Fabricius  Capito,  ii.  43;  mar- 
riage of,  ii.  48 

Wolfgang  of  Ratisbon,  St.,  inculcates 
chastity,  i.  175 

Wolf  hunts,  priests  obliged  to  join,  i. 
370 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  no  ascetic,  ii.  81  ; 
founds  Cardinal's  College  (now  Christ 
Church),  Oxford,  ii.  82  ;  co-legate  for 
Queen  Katharine's  divorce,  ii.  83  ;  fall 
of,  ii.  84 

Women,  intimacy  with,  forbidden  to 
pagan  priesthood,  i.  42  ;  not  allowed 
in  temple  of  Hercules,  i.  42  ;  not  pro- 


hibited from  serving  '  in  churches,  i. 
56;  residence  of,  with  priests  for- 
bidden in  Greek  Church,  i.  97  ;  not  to 
enter  chamber  of  bishop  unaccom- 
panied, i.  133  ;  Cuthbertof  Canterbury 
opposes  pilgrimages  of,  i.  189  ;  resi- 
dence of,  with  clerical  relatives  for- 
bidden, i.  410;  not  allowed  in  Cistercian 
monasteries,  ii.  23  ;  church  struck  by 
lightning  after  attendance  of,  ii.  23, 
note  ;  denouncing  priests  for  solicita- 
tion {see  Solicitation) 
Wood,  T.,on  position  of  Anglican  clergy, 

ii.  149,  note 
Worcester,  reformation  of  monks  in,  1. 
195  ;  Sir  John  Bourne's  complaint  of 
chapter  of,  ii.  142 
Worms,  Diet  of,  in  1076,  i.  278 
Wright,   political  songs  of  England,   i. 

343,  note 
Wriotbesley,  Chancellor,  ii.  116 
Wurzburg,    Bishop    of,   seizes    John   of 
Niklaushausen,   ii.    24  ;  synod   of,   in 
1548,  ii.  190  ;  Bishop  Melchior  of,  ii. 
190,  note  ;  wilful  ignorance  of  canons 
in,ii.  232 
Wu-Tsung  destroys  Buddhist  monasteries, 

i.  102 
Wyatt's  rebellion  suppressed,  ii.  124 
Wynrame,  Dean,   disputes  with  Knox, 
ii.  167 


XiMENES  reforms  Franciscans,  ii.  21 


Yoga  system,  severity  of,  i.  7 

York,  Wolsey  attempts   reformation  in 

diocese  of,  ii.  81  ;  claim  of,  on  Scottish 

Church,  i.  185  ;  Council  of,  in  1195,  i. 

350,  note  ;  Archbishop  of,  and  the  Six 

Articles,  ii.  Ill 
Ypres,  abuse  of  confessional,  in  1768,  ii. 

275 
Yves  of  Chartres  {see  Ivo) 


Zabarella,  Cardinal,  advocates  priestly 
marriage,  ii.  25 

Zabolcs,  synod  of,  in  1092,  i.  297 

Zaccdria,  Abate,  suggestions  of,  on  origin 
of  celibacy,  i.  15  ;  on  Nicene  canon,  i. 
49,  note ;  on  Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  i. 
53-4,  note  ;  on  dissolution  of  priestly 
marriage,  i.  394,  note  ;  on  proceedings 
at  Council  of  Bologna,  ii.  74,  note; 
defence  of  celibacy,  ii.  299;  Storia 
Polemica  del  Celibate  Sacro,  ii.  299  ; 
Nuova  Giustificazione  del  Celibate 
Sacro,  ii.  301 

Zachary,  Pope,  advice  of,  respecting 
Milo,  i.  145 ;  addresses  epistle  to 
Franks,  i.   148  ;    writes   to  Carloman 


412 


INDEX 


and  Pepin,  i.  149 ;  furthers  objeets^f 
Cuthbert  of  Canterbury,  i.  189 

Zago,  Zabo,  account  by,  of  Coptic  Church, 
i.  100 

Zagow.  abbey  of,  foundation  of,  i.  210 

Zuniga,  Luis  de,  ii.  214 

Zurich  letters,  ii.  147,  note 


Zurich,  priests  of,  defend  their  women 
i.  422 ;  nuns  in,  free  to  leave  con- 
vents, ii.  46 

Zwilling,  Gabriel,  preaches  against  mon- 
asticism,  ii,  44 

Zwingli,  Ulrich,  demands  priestly  mar- 
riage, ii.  45  ;  marriage  of,  ii.  46 


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